Food

It seems that after the political parties have had a go at each other on health, social services etc it will soon be the turn of food. Labour wants to make us self-sufficient (why? are we expecting the U-Boats back?) and the Tory Party want to regulate supermarkets to the benefit of farmers.

Here's the best thing they could do: leave it alone. There's plenty of food in the shops, and it's cheap enough that no one is starving. The examples in recent times of people going short of food (outside agriculturally depressed third world areas) are where socialism regulated the supply chain. The queues in Russia were because the food couldn't travel from farm to shop without the state getting involved at several stages.

Instead of a quango (have the Tories taken leave of their senses?) we need a Can-Do, a completely autonomous non directed organisation. The farmers would pay for it and it would set out quality standards for a 'Produce of Britain' label. The reason? Other countries in the EU produce things a lot cheaper than us, not just because of low wages but because of lower standards. Polish pork springs to mind. To get people to pay more for British pork (and we can't keep the Polish stuff out because they're in the EU) they have to be sure of the quality. Prince Charles is the chap to sort this out.

There would be a second label saying 'This food is guaranteed free from political interference'