Sorry Gordan I disagrre

Gordon Henderson is an extremely good local MP someone I voted for but his recent Newspaper Article entitled “Fear living wage could risk UK’s food security” is something I entirely disagree with.

This article has come about because the Government want to rid this country of Working Tax Credits and make it a legal requirement for employers to pay the living wage in a few years time. The last Labour Government introduced the ridiculous Working Tax Credits? Simply because it did  not have the courage to enforce a Living wage as the minimum wage which was insufficient to support a family . So they introduce the Working Tax Credits, which bolstered the income of those on a low wage, yet all it done was keep wages low allowing Employers, companies and Share Holders to make huge profits.

These Tax Credits cost the Country billions so Conservative Government has moved to make employers pay a Living wage, hopefully making the Working Tax Credits a thing of the past. Of course the large employers are complaining well they would, as they will no longer be able to pay a very low wage and make huge profits. The major supermarkets say they will have to sack people RUBBISH are we to believe that they could run their businesses with out the staff they have now? No of course not they need that amount of workforce to sustain their business.

With regard to Gordon’s article the idea we should keep wages low because of some fear that it will lead to the Countries farms being abandon is ridiculous. The British Farm Industry is the most efficient in the World I believe I am right in saying they produce more per acres the any other country in the World. The idea we have to pay low wages so people can have cheap veg, fruit and meat is absurd. Although they do have a point about cheap imports but that is down to the EU and our own government

It is interesting that the UN, EU and our various political parties bang on about Human Rights and Poverty (not the so called poverty in the UK) but allow imports to this country and others that rely on the produce being supplied by workers on near starvation wages, therefore allowing cheap imports so the Big Companies can make huge profits. Also many governments subsidise their exports, so you can understand the Farmers saying it not an equal playing fields. Yet the answer is not to lower our standards eventually forcing down the labour cost to that of backward countries but to impose regulations that enforce all companies in this country to prove the people they buy their products from pay a living wage and have decent working conditions for their workforce if not ban them from operating in this country

Cheap imported foods mainly used by the Multi Nationals who own the Supermarkets are aggravating poverty in countries that supply them by offering ridiculous low prices for their products, they even do that to our own Farmers.

So would it be a major problem if the price of food raised NO.  The amount of food wasted in the Western world is an absolute disgrace by pricing food upwards it would return us to a society who cooked and utilised our food properly people will not afford to have waste

If we sold more food on a loose basis and done away with unnecessary packaging etc.  plus allow shops to sell misshapen vegetables, that in itself would be a cost saving. Has anyone considered the cost to the environment by importing so much food when we can supply ourselves? For example this year there has been a glut of English Apples so much so some are not even picked yet our Supermarkets are still importing Apples! Now how does that make sense