It was bitterly cold yesterday. A man was sitting in a doorway, so I stopped to offer to buy him a hot drink. He asked me my name, shook my hand and told me his name was Nick. He was genial and friendly, but shivering ...

So I went to the nearby (hipster) coffee shop and got him coffee and cake. Internal dialogue something like this: hmm, chocolate cake unhealthy? maybe he needs nutrients; is that patronising? who am I to decide what he should eat; maybe banana cake; what if he hates banana?

£6 in total, paid with a tenner and gave Nick the cake, coffee and change. It was BLOODY cold. Went on my way knowing that he'd be sitting there for hours and I'd maybe made it slightly more bearable for 5–10 minutes (if at all).

Remembered reading Alan Bennett, while Thatcher was PM, describing keeping loose change in his pocket to give to homeless people on (I think) Hungerford Bridge. 'I think of it as a toll charged for crossing the bridge,' he said.

Everyone concerned about homelessness is paying a toll. I paid a tenner yesterday because I couldn't walk past a man shivering in a doorway (who can?). If paid to the government in tax, that could have contributed towards proper public services.

I don't remotely resent spending the money; I resent that government isn't collecting that money from all of us who can afford it and using it to prevent destitution. The claims about low tax are dishonest. We are paying the price, one way or another.

When I was a student in the late 1970s, there wasn't a single person shivering in a doorway in this town. Not one. Now, like Alan Bennett, I take my loose change with me when I go out. It solves nothing.