Talking of Cabbages
There seems to be general agreement that vegetables are expensive ; but on the reason for this state of affairs there is little in common between the views of the producers, the retailers, the housewives and the Minister of Food, who all blame each other and last year's drought in varying proportions. Mr. Webb, however, in a peculiar statement to .the House of Commons on Monday, seemed to be trying to identify the Government with the housewives (or consumers, to give them their official label). " Buyers' resistance to unreasonable prices," he said, " is the only effective means at our disposal, pending the outcome of otir long-term policy for the reorganisation of fruit and vegetable marketing." The second of these two " ours " presumably refers to the Labour Party, but the first suggests that Mr. Webb believes that the Government can, or should, encourage what is popularly known as a consumers' strike. Mr. Webb should consult his colleagues. The Minister of Labour would assure him that unofficial strikes are deplorable, while the Chancellor of the Exchequer would point out to him that if consumers started striking against all over-priced articles—tobacco and beer, for example—the national finances would receive a body-blow. It is of course true that the price of fruit and vegetables snowballs from the moment they leave the garden to the moment they reach the shopping-bag, even allowing for the hazards of weather and deterioration which all concerned in the trade have to take into account. Any simpli- fication of marketing which would reduce prices would be welcomed by the producers as much as by the housewives ; but if the " long-term policy for reorganisation has anything to do with nationalisation, it can only have an exactly contrary effect. And putting ninepence on 'petrol is not going to bring down the price of cabbages either, for the matter of that.
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