The Tories’ war on welfare has caused untold suffering. Here are three ways we can stop it | Tom Clark

For years the right has made the political running. But the argument is winnable

Food banks are everywhere, and all the volunteers - like the many reports that have asked why food banks have proliferated - are agreed on the cause. It is cuts, delays and sanctions to benefits that have made Britain a hungrier nation than it was at the beginning of the Cameron term of government.

After 2010 a historic assault on the ideal of social security gradually emerged. But now, with the Conservatives threatening another largely unspecified 12bn in welfare cuts if they win the general election - the equivalent of 24 bedroom taxes, by the way - it's time to stop interpreting the war on welfare. It is time instead to ask how to fight back.

Related: Food banks: benefit sanctions leave clients hungry for months

The right's great advance against social security has come through waging a culture war

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