Supermarkets are evil, they are driving down the prices for suppliers forcing poor farmers to go out of business. This must be stopped!
But just a minute – how do we do this? After all those farmers already receive a subsidy from the Common Agricultural Programme to produce their sheep, beef or milk so the taxpayer is already (in theory) subsiding the price of these goods.
Apparently we need a regulator! Who – according to Tim Farron, President of the Liberal Democrats - would:
Totally agree! A strong regulator would make sure consumers don't pay more & that farmers get a better price
So we create a system where the price to the supplier is fixed (or subject to controls to guarantee a minimum price which amounts to the same hill of beans) but the supermarket can’t pass that on to the consumer.
We would have a subsidised, loss-making farming business with state determined minimum prices and a grocery sector with state determined maximum prices. If that’s not a recipe for disaster, I don’t know what is!
Rather reminds me of the Soviet Union!
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