Curly’s Corner Shop, the blog!

PM displays his “in touch” characteristics

Whilst there can be no doubt that as a nation of people we are very wasteful when it comes to buying our food and probably consume far more than is healthy for us, it does not behove the Prime Minister well to be lecturing us upon our habits. The “waste not, want not” message is all well and good coming from parents but coming from someone who earns a huge salary out of our hard earned and paid for taxes, and then spends eleven years throwing cash around like confetti, it smacks of “people living in glass houses”. Such talk is always likely to sound like “nanny knows best” statism.

With world oil prices contributing to food costs indirectly but crucially in the areas of fertiliser production and transport costs, Brown could do much to alleviate these costs by reducing the amount of taxation that the British government takes from oil, petrol, and derv, yet he gets his civil servants to chant the mantra that this would result in reduced government expenditure, or increased taxation, elsewhere. What utter complete tosh!

As world oil prices have risen the government has reaped untold rewards in additional taxation which was NOT PLANNED for at the beginning of the fiscal year, this is all EXTRA cash, a big bonus, just  like winning the Lottery! There are very good reasons why Gordon doesn’t want to see this windfall reduced or wasted of course, there is the huge debt created by the 10p tax rate climb down to pay for, as well as the costs of buying the Ulster Unionist votes for saving the 42 day clause. If South Shields families are forking out an extra £400 odd per year on wasted food then they are certainly forking out twice that amount on extra taxation introduced over the the lifespan of the NuLabour experiment, with little real improvement in family life to show for it!

Broon also conveniently forgets to mention the effect of so called “green policies” pursued by NuLabour and other western governments in their fascination with the climate change agenda with a secret World Bank report suggesting that the production of biofuels is responsible for forcing up global food prices by 75%.

A separate report for the British government also warns of the dangers involved in pressing the biofuels agenda;

The Gallagher report on biofuels, to be published by the Transport Department, is expected to sound a warning that far more research is needed on the impact of biofuels such as corn ethanol and biodiesel on land use and food production before the Government sets any targets for their use in transport.

Britain is expected to press for EU targets on extending the use of biofuels to be scaled back. Food prices have risen because farmers have replaced traditional food crops with those to produce biofuels.

Meanwhile David Cameron’s Conservatives appear to be looking for the populist approach by tinkering with the fuel tax escalator, it will strike a chord with the average family car driver but the danger is that the oil and petrol companies will not pass on the savings to the consumer when the price of a barrel of oil rises, and when it falls the pump price is unlikely to follow at the same speed. With some refinement, they may find a suitable vote winning policy, but the mechanics still need some adjustment, the upside for the Tories is that they are speaking a language that looks more “in touch” with the aspirations of the British people which contrasts rather well with the condescending talk from Gordon Brown.

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