FILM: Highlighting failing systems

Stunned silence, followed by spontaneous applause, came from the audience at the end of I, Daniel Blake.

Directed by Ken Loach, winner of the Palme d’Or, this film is incredible.

Set in Newcastle, with actors using our familiar North East accent, the story is brilliant – utterly believable, but totally heart-rending. Don’t miss it.

The bureaucracy and idiocy of some of the systems that run our country come under scathing attack. Questions need to be asked.

Will the Department for Work and Pensions take note and listen?

Will something be done before the queues for the food banks get even longer?

Will those who “govern” us see that the benefit system is falling apart and do something about it?

Loach’s famous TV film Cathy Come Home made a huge impact on public awareness of homelessness in the 1960s.

Let’s hope we are now prompted do more to help those decent citizens who get tangled up in the sticky web of the benefit system.

Janet V Hardie,

Address supplied