Andrea Leadsom, Idiot-in-Chief
A local Conservative Party member of my acquaintance is fairly contemptuous of Andrea Leadsom -- in his words, "she isn't Cabinet-quality". As would appear to be demonstrated by her suggestion at this week's Conservative Party conference that, post-Brexit, British yoof be tasked to harvest English fruit and vegetables in place of the seasonal Eastern European migrant workers that will then be barred from the UK. She has obviously failed to grasp that seasonal Eastern European migrant workers do this work because British yoof don't want it, or the poor pay and living conditions typically associated with it -- or to grasp that, once migrant workers have gone and not been replaced, commercial fruit and vegetable growers will be forced to either transfer their operations to within the EU, switch to less labour-intensive arable crops, or even get out of the sector entirely. The upshot of which will be that, apart from (niche-specific) organic produce and direct sales to the public at farmers markets, the bulk of the fruit and vegetables marketed in the UK post-Brexit are likely to be imported. And thus more expensive.
Has her department, or other government departments, understood this? That, because imported fruit and vegetables will cost more than what's currently available, poorer sectors of society are likely to reduce their consumption of same even further, skewing their diet even more in favour of the cheaper, lower-quality processed foods which already constitute too high a proportion of it? That, in the longer-term, such a reduction in dietary status for these sectors will result in poorer educational attainment, poorer health outcomes, reduced productivity and life expectancy, and greater costs for society as a whole in twenty-thirty-forty years' time?
Probably not. Well done, you "take back control" morons.
Has her department, or other government departments, understood this? That, because imported fruit and vegetables will cost more than what's currently available, poorer sectors of society are likely to reduce their consumption of same even further, skewing their diet even more in favour of the cheaper, lower-quality processed foods which already constitute too high a proportion of it? That, in the longer-term, such a reduction in dietary status for these sectors will result in poorer educational attainment, poorer health outcomes, reduced productivity and life expectancy, and greater costs for society as a whole in twenty-thirty-forty years' time?
Probably not. Well done, you "take back control" morons.