THE Right to Food evidence sessions may show people “shattered, knackered and hopeless” but they also show “optimism and people fighting back,” according to Ian Byrne.

The socialist MP for Liverpool West Derby and parliamentary lead for the Right to Food Commission made the remarks as it made its final evidence-gathering visit to Glasgow today.

Mr Byrne described ideas proposed such as public diners — modelled on the British restaurants used during and after WWII — as “fascinating,” telling the Star: “People are shattered, knackered, hopeless — there’s been lots of community sessions that have had a lot of hopelessness to it.

“The rise of the far right and the populist parties is because of the hopelessness, because people feel the system isn’t working for them.

“But then you see the optimism and people fighting back. It’s still there. Communities have still got the capacity to fight back, but it’s clear it needs massive state intervention to solve what we’re looking at here.”

Turning to that far-right threat seen in Belfast and the streets of towns and cities of Britain this week, including Glasgow, session chair and BFAWU general secretary Sarah Wooley told the Star: “Going and burning somebody’s house down because they’re black is not going to put food on anybody’s table.

“It’s not going to change the position that the community is in — in fact, it’s only going to make it worse.

“People have got a right to be angry, people have got a right to be frustrated, but we need to be directed to the people who have caused this, the people who have been making political decisions for 40 years, not people who are coming over here fleeing war for a better life.”