Off the Rails

 Labour, Loughborough, Melton Mowbray  No Responses »
Jul 162012
 

Great News! The Government has given the go-ahead (again) to electrify the Midland Mainline, starting after 2014 (general election is in 2015). The money isn’t coming from the Government but from significant increases in passenger fares. How generous of them.

We’ve asked for investment in infrastructure so as to boost the economy and they’ve turned round and agreed a scheme which will take at least 3 years to get fully off the ground and which we’re paying for. Forget the recession we’ll be in a depression by then.  What beats me is all the money we’re pumping into the railways only for shareholders to get dividends at the public expense.  We must be off our rockers – never mind off the rails.

Milking It

 Foods, Labour, Loughborough, Melton Borough Council, Melton Mowbray  No Responses »
Jul 162012
 

Dairy Cows

I probably get through, on my own, almost a litre of milk a day. I make my porridge with it, have it in coffee, and like it just to drink.  Added to that I eat a lot of cheese – you get the idea – I’m very dependent on the dairy industry.  And I do know the price of a pint – of milk that is.

I pay 90p in the shop across the road for a 2 pint carton of milk. Now supermarkets retail their milk at around 52p a litre and yet they buy milk from the farmer at 25p a litre.  Since it costs the farmer roughly 30p to produce this milk, the farmer is producing milk at a loss. No wonder the number of dairy farmers has fallen in the last 15 years by more than 20,000 – down to just 14,500.  Yet in the same period the profits the retailers make from milk has rocketed sixfold up from 2.6p to 15p a litre.

Not all retailers are the bad boys in this – some are worse than others.  At least Tesco, Marks and Spencer, Sainbury’s and Waitrose have “aligned contracts” with their farmers which guarantee the farmers 30p a litre, ie the cost of production and no more.  Morrison, Asda and the Co-Operative Group have yet to offer a fair price to farmers for their milk – so I won’t be buying my milk from them in future.

Fairtrade? We need FairMilk in this country – pay farmers a decent price for their milk and in the long term we’ll all benefit.  It’s about time we stopped greedy firms from milking it!