There really is something un-prime-ministerial about Gordon Brown telling us to avoid BOGOF offers at our local supermarket when so much of his own policy agenda is causing our weekly food bills to grow and grow.
Daniel Hannan gets to the meat of the issue on his blog:
"Before lecturing the rest of us, the Prime Minister might usefully ponder what he could to do lower food bills. Gordon Brown says that judicious purchasing could save the average family £8.00 a week. Even if this is true, it is a small saving next to the £20.00 a week that we should save if Britain left the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.
The CAP is the most expensive, wasteful and amoral system of farm support devised by human intelligence. It penalises us repeatedly: we pay higher taxes to encourage production, we pay again to store surpluses, we pay yet again to destroy them, and then we're billed all over again as consumers to maintain artificially high prices. Output-based subsidies encourage the felling of hedgerows and the use of chemical fertilisers. Preventable poverty is inflicted on Africa, which finds European markets closed to its chief exports. Agricultural subsidies stand in the way of a comprehensive world trade settlement which would benefit consumers and farmers alike. Inflation is driven up, with deleterious consequences for the entire economy."
More here. And for those wanting even more on the costs of EU membership please see this post reflecting on Chris Chope MP's recent contribution to a Commons debate he instigated.
