I am so fed up of a lack of food in shops.

[OutofEverything]

This has been going on for a few years but is only getting worse. I had to go to 3 supermarkets before I found some eggs. No lettuce at all, a few packs of salad tomatoes available in one supermarket, loads of empty spaces in the fruit and veg section, and in ASDA even the freezers had loads of empty spaces.

Before anyone says yes I know we will not starve, there is enough actual food. But a visit to a supermarket now is a lottery about what will be available and what is missing. And more and more I am having to visit multiple shops to get absolute basics.

He would have probably added at the end of that list, with a sigh, "and then there is 'Boris Johnson' author of "Fuck Business" and "Fuck the Americans" (and not in relation to Jennifer Arcuri either. You were warned .....

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/24/boris-johnson-prime-minister-tory-party-britain

For many of us, his elevation will signal Britain’s abandonment of any claim to be a serious country. It can be claimed that few people realised what a poor prime minister Theresa May would prove until they saw her in Downing Street. With Boris, however, what you see now is almost assuredly what we shall get from him as ruler of Britain.

We can scarcely strip the emperor’s clothes from a man who has built a career, or at least a lurid love life, out of strutting without them. The weekend stories of his domestic affairs are only an aperitif for his future as Britain’s leader. I have a hunch that Johnson will come to regret securing the prize for which he has struggled so long, because the experience of the premiership will lay bare his absolute unfitness for it.

If the Johnson family had stuck to showbusiness like the Osmonds, Marx Brothers or von Trapp family, the world would be a better place. Yet the Tories, in their terror, have elevated a cavorting charlatan to the steps of Downing Street, and they should expect to pay a full forfeit when voters get the message. If the price of Johnson proves to be Corbyn, blame will rest with the Conservative party, which is about to foist a tasteless joke upon the British people – who will not find it funny for long.

@ropeycorn
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make?

Anyway, economics is not an exact science, because if it was every country in the world would have an economy running like a well-oiled machine.

a quip to add to your Winston Churchill quote indicating that some of our current problems, poor governance, Brexit, lack of food in shops etc are down to old bodger - not aimed at you ! 😀

I'll get my coat ....

Nurses don’t grow on trees. Someone has to pay for them. Financials services is the backbone of our economy. We need stronger financial services, not weaker.

It’s not a binary choice.

Interesting. But surely the only story that counts right now is 'All Western countries' growth has slowed, but the economies of those still in Europe have slowed far less'.

Britain's growth pre 1974 has no bearing - we are in an entirely different global economic landscape.

At nation-level, even if our growth had somehow been reined in by membership, now we are 'free' we no longer have anything to export from our own country nor an empire to pillage or a post-empire to 'invest' in, as China is doing in Africa.

@ropeycorn I remember that phrase 'cavorting charlatan' so vividly. It couldn't have been a more accurate description/prediction.

@WinterDeWinter At nation-level, even if our growth had somehow been reined in by membership, now we are 'free' we no longer have anything to export from our own country

Have you been "asleep at the wheel" ?!

UK Trade deals are listed here;
www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-uks-trade-agreements#:~:text=The%20UK%20recently%20signed%20agreements,Southern%20African%20countries%20(ESA).

More detail here:
www.agi.global/news/what-are-the-top-10-uk-exports

What will we be trading @Alittlebitofbreadandsomecheese ? We don’t manufacture anything.

Basically C+P from the Eu deal and probably worse cf NZ/Aus thrown our farmers under the bus. Have replaced a crack EU trade negotiating team able to get the best deals and economy of scale by harried civil servants who could be doing more useful work trying to reinvent the wheel but it's a square one instead of round.

Oh, and probably done by Liz '50bn' Truss on the gravy train Royal jet Brexit One and posing for insta and cos-playing with her government photographer.

But apart from all that brilliant....said nobody never.

Unicorns once we can hunt them down.... and rocking horse shit when we can stop it going into our rivers. 😂

😂 (though we need a 'bitter tears' emoji, post-brexit)

It's sadly ironic that Ukraine seeks to be a member of the EU almost as a matter of faith and that Boris Johnson their self-appointed greatest supporter did so much to damage it.

www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Centre_for_European_Reform

The 'Centre for European Reform' turns out to be a front for oil companies, MI6, and probably the CIA.

So YYY to the quote from Churchill.

Listed on my post at 14.43 - can't you read?

What a little ray of sunshine you are - must be being so cheerful that keeps you going. 🙂

Are you smoking something? Because if you are I'd stop if I were you 🙄

Re cost of energy More or Less just broke down figures. In cash terms electricity not top, but real terms 15th and gas is lower end and when handouts included it adjusts again

Anyway on R4 if anyone wants more accurate figures

Our local lidl absolutely stuffed to the gunnels with all manner of fruit and veg this morning, not an empty shelf in sight.

I asked my greengrocer about this today - as he had lots of everything. He said the supermarkets have contracts with the suppliers and are refusing to pay the higher prices the suppliers are asking for due to the bad weather and restricted supply. Greengrocers are paying more - and no shortages.

This thread has been an interesting read.

Went to my local Co-op today (south coast) and bought the last box of 6 eggs, as eggs were unavailable on my online shop (Asda) yesterday. In fact I've found them hard to obtain for a couple of months.

Before Christmas I heard on the radio a discussion with a farmer who said that she - like many others she knew - was getting out of egg production because it had simply become uneconomic. While production costs, especially for energy and feed, had soared, supermarkets were refusing to pay more for the eggs. The avian flu problem hardly mattered - both she and others had already decided to bow out before that anyway.

Incidentally, I noticed that my Co-op had big gaps in its fruit and veg section - e.g. very few tomatoes, no cucumbers and just 2 packs of peppers. But there were loads of strawberries and raspberries! Perhaps customers are prepared to pay more for those items.

2016 a big red bus and on the side £350 million a week for the NHS. 2023 - eat Turnips. We were telling the truth, leaving the EU was a con. Yesterday Sunak told NI they were in the best position possible, access to the single market and access to the UK. Hold on, wasnt that what we had until Brexshit? Anyone voting for Brexshit. You were sold a pup. If you have kids, and I assume you do being on mumsnet. Those kids will never forgive you. All you did was limit their future. Pure selfishness.

I was in Aldi this morning and I also didn't see any shortages there, other than some of the freezers were a bit low but that seems to have been going on for quite a while, they were low last year at times.

Lots of fruit and veg when I went shopping today apart from peppers which were limited - but available.

I went to a local greengrocer yesterday (NW) and got all the fruit, veg and eggs I needed.

I asked why he had full shelves, when supermarkets had gaps, and he said that he wasn't like the supermarkets that wanted the produce for next-to-nothing, he was prepared to pay a fair price.

Also all the goods were produced locally.

This is why supplies are patchy.