It is Christmas, but not for all. On our streets this year, without an address, a homeless person I know of is losing his benefits.

If he can get there, he will be one of many visiting the food bank at St Andrew’s in Devizes. He’s not alone.

Parts of Wiltshire are in the top five per cent of most deprived areas in England, average wages are tipping downwards, affordable housing is in crisis, and the gap between the rich and poor is growing.

Investment in the classroom, the police, and in public transport is cut to the bone, under threat, while billions are set to be spent on glorified roadworks.

Our countryside is being turned into a building site, while wages and hours are cut, buses and cottage hospitals disappear, for corporate cash, not for the inn-keepers, carpenters and shepherds among us. Christmas is a time to help others, and if that means standing up for what we value, it is a good time to start doing it.

Mark Fletcher, Green Party candidate for Devizes, Bromham.