Food and the Market
Sir: I am a voluntary resident in Battersea, but an unwilling constituent of Douglas Jay. Therefore you can imagine my irritation at being exposed to another instalment of his frequently misleading views in your own columns. I appreciate that you are editorially against British membership of the EEC, but had also understood you to prefer sense to nonsense as a diet for your readers.
The first nonsense is Mr Jay's suggestion that membership of the EEC is causally related to our very high inflation in food prices in 1973. This is akin to the logic that the most frequently observed colour amongst First Division football teams is red and
so entry to the Fist Division is assisted by wearing red striped shirts. Closer examination of the several causes of the inflation show that the structure of UK imports includes a high proportion of animal foodstuffs, which inflated much faster than the average, and that this fact was nothing to do with CAP. The second nonsense is the suggestion that British farmers and housewives should return to the tried and successful' policy of guaranteed prices and deficiency payments. The last time we had that system oa.t food prices rose about 20 per cent In five years whilst world prices were relatively stable. In contrast the levY system has been responsible for onlY.5 or 6 per cent of the increase in our food prices since 1970. In the final analysis few people are convinced by statistics, but perhaps your readers would be influenced bY the fact that both deficiency payments when we had them and the current levies have as part of their object the. maintenance of farmers' incomes and
the consequent import-saving as' sociated with an expanding home production. Take away the levies and you would need to subsidise the farmer directly from Government funds. Douglas Jay may prefer that, but where possible I prefer a market, even a protected one.
Young Conservative National L smwani,1.39 Warriner Gardens, London
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