Boycott rip-off supermarkets.Byline: Fiona Phillips Fiona Phillips (born 1 January 1961, Canterbury) is a journalist, broadcaster and television presenter. After leaving the University of Birmingham with a B.A. (Hons) in English she started her career in independent radio working for local stations County Sound, Hereward Radio and WOULDN'T you know it? While our MPs receive unprecedented levels of flak and anger for ripping us off, we're still supporting our supermarkets. The majority of us will toddle around, maybe today, possibly tomorrow, loading our trolleys to fill our fridges and cupboards for the coming week. All the while lining the pockets of businesses which are, to all intents and purposes Adv. 1. to all intents and purposes - in every practical sense; "to all intents and purposes the case is closed"; "the rest are for all practical purposes useless" for all intents and purposes, for all practical purposes , as guilty of nicking our hardearned money as some of our politicians are. Food price inflation is four times higher here than in the rest of Europe despite huge falls in the wholesale cost of basics like potatoes and rice. The price of broccoli in the big four supermarkets Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons has gone up on average by over 40% in the past year from pounds 1.38 in 2008 to pounds 1.98 now. A can of "value" chopped tomatoes has risen a whopping 73%, from 21p to 36p and bananas, apples, eggs, milk and meat have all gone up. And all the while, instead of passing cuts in the price of wholesale food on to us, the supermarkets have passed them on, via record profits, to their own already heavily cash-lined pockets. At a time when everyone's pennypinching, the supermarkets are pinching ours. Tesco reported record profits - up 10% to pounds 3.13billion recently and Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King There are different prominent people named Justin King:
Despite the pools of cash, the supermarkets certainly don't seem to be giving a fair share to farmers, who say they're receiving just a fraction of the hefty price rises slapped on customers. In Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Germany food costs have fallen. In America they've risen, but only by 2.3% Here they're up by 8% overall. The voice of economic reason, Lib Dem LIB DEM Liberal Democrat(s) (UK political party) Vince Cable, says: "There is clear evidence that food and commodity prices are falling around the world. "These should be passed on by retailers. "There really is no excuse for supermarkets to take advantage of the situation to fatten up Verb 1. fatten up - make fat or plump; "We will plump out that poor starving child" fat, fatten, fatten out, flesh out, plump out, plump, fill out alter, change, modify - cause to change; make different; cause a transformation; "The advent of the automobile their profit margins." No, there isn't. So now that we're getting used to venting our anger by voting, why not vote with your feet this weekend?Food inflation is four times higher here than in Europe |
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