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When was the last time Britain fully self-sufficient in food production? This was actually over 200 years ago, around the turn of the 18th century. You could say these were the  ‘good old days’ but actually it was far from that.   Most working-class families struggled to afford a diet beyond bread, potatoes, and a bit… Continue reading The UK Food Security Scorecard – by Professor Christopher Elliott

Asda’s trading performance has been a concern for some time. Whilst it is all well and good to ship share to others for a period, it becomes a worry line if that negative momentum persists, like 3Y+, and deepens, not least because stabilisation becomes all the more challenging, potentially costly, and possibly contagious. Has such… Continue reading Going to war?

The new Labour Government, genuinely perceived to be out of its depth after a quite uninspiring first six months or so in office, is at glacial pace starting to think about public health in terms of prevention and not cure. Such a view is welcome, if not a new one, and one senses that Health Minister… Continue reading Bad diets, food affordability & substantive policy

It is really wearing. Business folks are, by definition, competitive people, who want to get on, to build, to create wealth and they tend to flourish when the context, the climate, is positive.  Whilst so, in the main they will battle on when headwinds emerge, often in the hope that when better weather arrives, they… Continue reading Clinical focus amidst the chaos

At the turn of 2023-24, there was a huge level of frustration with the ineffectiveness, incompetence and, not far short of open corruption (e.g., Covid deals), of several years of terrible Conservative rule of the UK. On the horizon, however, in what was going to be the year that the world voted, welcome back Donald… Continue reading Looking for real stability and a new Sir Humphrey.

The post-match analysis of Rachel Reeves’ Budget has been extensive and largely brutal, the comments of the arguably left of centre Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) worrying for the Government as further tax rises seem likely, not least because cutting expenditure in a bloated and inefficient State appears off the… Continue reading A very tough first Reeves Budget for the food system

After such a prolonged political car crash and the welcome removal of the Tories by the electorate on US Independence Day, it is quite deflating to see how Labour has taken on the mantle of dispiriting and underwhelming leadership. The country is not actually asking for much, I sense, from its politicians; an ability to… Continue reading A nervous eye on the UK labour market

The removal of Messrs., Gove, Rees-Mogg, Truss et al from any form of power is a good thing given their collective self-centredness, incompetence, and exceptionally poor track record. They deserved the good electoral kicking they got and are replaced by the likes of Starmer, Raynor and Reeves; will the new kids on the block be… Continue reading A new dawn, a new day…

The calling of the 2024 General Election in July has been greeted with a sense of relief in many quarters, my own included, that a worse than poor Conservative regime will come to an end sooner rather than later. The Sunak regime will bring to a close a period of political history where the analysis… Continue reading Oh, happy days…

The Tories are a spent force. The damage done by the lazy and eccentric Boris Johnson and the wholly naive and incompetent Lis Truss are too much for an admittedly competent but seemingly unelectable Rishi Sunak to overcome. Long in the tooth, ill-disciplined, at times wholly illogical e.g., Michael Gove’s decisions not to grant Marks… Continue reading Awaiting a new regime…

The roll card is long, it is grim reading and, frankly, it is depressing. Much print space goes into criticising Britain’s politicians, much of it deserved, especially the present torrid Conservative regime. Whilst so, being a politician has its drawbacks, and tragically at times mortal dangers, leading one has to ask who in their right… Continue reading Maybe let Tesco run the country’s finances

European Community butter mountains are distant memories. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Common Agricutlural Policy (CAP) encouraged production of a range of foodstuffs for which there was no natural market and masses of goods were holed up in massive stores as a mechanism to directly support farming incomes. Such policy was a failure and… Continue reading Prioritising food security