And so it has come to this! Here in Cornwall we are to ask holiday home and second home owners to donate their leftovers to the county’s poorest.

Now all credit to the councillor who suggested the idea, it is after all practical and may be of some use in what is increasingly an ever desperate situation.

However it may also be just about the most enraging and insulting thing I have ever read.

There is a crisis in housing that has now seen generations of young Cornish men and women unable to afford a home, caused by government (of all parties) and local council failures, and compounded by the hollowing out of communities as empty ghettos of holiday homes take over large swathes of the county.

There has also long been a miserable employment situation for many, which offers few jobs other than temporary and badly paid holiday season work, or the stark alternative of leaving to seek fortunes elsewhere.

But no, there is no plan to solve this, or if there is, it is failing, and badly.

I am sure it cannot just be me that thinks that stooping, begging bowl in hand, is not something that most proud Cornish people will relish, particularly to the people partly to blame for sky high rents and out of reach house prices.

Or is it time to swallow our pride and hope that the charity of others will tide us through? You decide, but I know how I feel about it.