PARENTS have an almost primal ability to decipher the meaning of their baby’s cries. It doesn’t take long to learn whether their guttural wail is as a result of a wet nappy, hunger, overtiredness or teething.

I’m long past that stage with my own daughter – who is now able to describe to me in great detail what she’s annoyed about – but I remember feeling like a superhero when she was a baby and I relied on instinct to deduce what the source of her woe was.

In winter, I enjoy a similar relationship with my boiler. It breaks down at least twice a year. A few weeks before Christmas, a familiar gurgling in the body of the machine signalled that trouble was imminent.

My landlord sent round an engineer who confirmed what I had long suspected – it is beyond repair and I need a new boiler.

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My landlord opted for another temporary fix instead and as the engineer left he remarked, wryly: “Have a good Christmas, I’ll see again you in a few weeks.”

For me, it is hugely inconvenient and annoying when the boiler breaks down and I’m left temporarily without heat and hot water.

But it’s manageable. I’m prepared for when it happens. I have electric blankets for the couch and electric mattress toppers for the beds. I have electric heaters and the means to afford the extra energy all these mitigation measures cost.

For many low-income families across the country, dealing with freezing temperatures inside their own homes is a shamefully common experience. It comes not as a result of an appliance breaking down, but simply because they can’t afford to put their heating on.

Figures released by Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) last week estimated that more than 230,000 people used free community spaces such as libraries and cafes to keep warm in the last year.

CAS energy spokesman Matthew Lee said: “These are shocking figures which show the scale of concern and the measures people have taken to try and stay warm in cold weather as energy bills have increased.

“People are struggling to keep warm in their own homes and they don’t want to turn the heating on because of the costs, so they will find somewhere else to get a heat. People being forced to take these sorts of decisions should be completely unacceptable in 2024.”

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He is right. It is shocking that nearly a quarter-of-a-million people were forced to go elsewhere to access the heat that should be readily accessible to them in their own homes.

When figures like this are released, it’s easy to just add them to the list of all the other numbers that highlight just how bad things have gotten for low-income families.

But it’s important that we stop and try to imagine what these numbers mean in practice. We shouldn’t shy away from the scale of destitution and desperation that has become normalised within our society.

Among those figures, there will be mums who have bundled small children out of the house and on to a bus to reach the town centre, just so they can escape the chill for a few hours.

There will be pensioners who felt the ache of the cold in their bones and emerged from under a pile of blankets to go out and find some respite from it. And many parents who tried to make the best of a bad situation who told their children they were going out on an adventure for the day.

This is the energy crisis in action.

At our local food bank, where I volunteer, we give out leaflets that direct clients to their nearest “warm bank”. The first time I saw these leaflets, I was horrified that fuel poverty has become so commonplace that it is necessary to use community spaces in such a way.

But then, when you think about it, it isn’t any more horrifying than the widespread use of food banks in one of the richest countries in the world.

If things carry on the way they are, warm banks will become a staple too.

Politicians will take grinning selfies with volunteers at their local library, where a dozen people have gathered not to browse books but to shelter from the cold.

The Trussell Trust is clear that it doesn’t want its huge network of food banks and army of volunteers to become a permanent fixture.

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Its vision is for a future where there is no need for food banks, where every family has the dignity and security that comes with knowing they can comfortably afford all of life’s essentials.

As we begin year with an election on the horizon, that seems like the bare minimum any party wanting our vote should be offering.