Scottish Government Proposes Price Cap On Essential Foods

JenniRen

butterandjam

JenniRen

Just wondering the same, MawsRosie

When I last looked, there were 57 Members of Parliament representing Scottish Constituencies elected to Westminster in 2024:

37 Labour
8 SNP
6 Conservative
6 Liberal Democrat

Perhaps they've all resigned since I posted earlier today.

Yes, my bad, I do apologise to Jenniwren. My minds eye inserted "SNP" after 57 :-(

Apology accepted.
😁

Oh dear, only 8 SNP!

Apologies too. I tend to think of Scottish politics first so the switch to Westminster caught me on the hop.

butterandjam

JenniRen

Just wondering the same, MawsRosie

When I last looked, there were 57 Members of Parliament representing Scottish Constituencies elected to Westminster in 2024:

37 Labour
8 SNP
6 Conservative
6 Liberal Democrat

Perhaps they've all resigned since I posted earlier today.

Yes, my bad, I do apologise to Jenniwren. My minds eye inserted "SNP" after 57 :-(

Apology accepted.
😁

Oh dear, only 8 SNP!

JenniRen

Just wondering the same, MawsRosie

When I last looked, there were 57 Members of Parliament representing Scottish Constituencies elected to Westminster in 2024:

37 Labour
8 SNP
6 Conservative
6 Liberal Democrat

Perhaps they've all resigned since I posted earlier today.

Yes, my bad, I do apologise to Jenniwren. My minds eye inserted "SNP" after 57 :-(

Merrymary

I fully agree with PaddyAnn! At least the Scottish government do their best to protect the poorest in Scotland which is more than Westminster do!

But it isn't going to just help the poorest, it will help everyone from the billionaires downwards.

Many of the poorest areas do not have local supermarkets and do not have easy access to one. The reduction in price may well be less than the cost of accessing a supermarket and how do you get a big bag of theses cheapies home when you do not have a car, cannot afford a taxi (ever tried taking home a large load of shopping on a bus?)

Those in the greatest poverty are far more dependent on dirt cheap take aways (see my previous post) and corner shops than supermarkets. As far as I can see, cheapest bread etc, means offering the whole population to just the kind of poor quality food, full of UPFs that we regularly deplore them having to eat as it causes health problems and chronic diseases like high cholesterol, obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

Padyann may value cheap food above god health - she is not alone, many other Scots do and have the illneses to prove it, but given the intellectual eminence of Scotland in past times, it is sad that the country has fallen so low that the best idea that its government can come up with to alleviate poverty is to hasten the death of those who suffer most.

How do you do this? Take bread for instances supermarket own brand loaf in Tesco, wholemeal and white is 75p Warburtons thick white £1.40, & wholemeal £1.35 price matched to Aldi. You buy the one you prefer / can afford. Are they only doing it on unbranded items are we heading back to the value range of the 80's ? How are the local corner shop going to be able to match them. Yes food has risen in price, but people also buy a lot of convenience and "treat" type foods more than ever, families expect to have a cupboard rammed with crisps and biscuits soft drinks and weekly takeaways.

PaddyAnne,

Spot on girl!!

Arrant nonsense!

I fully agree with PaddyAnn! At least the Scottish government do their best to protect the poorest in Scotland which is more than Westminster do!

I couldn’t agree more PaddyAnn!

I couldn’t agree more PaddyAnn

After spending time in USA and Europe this year it was bliss to be back, so much cheaper here.

Don’t know what happened there - I was saying the British ready meals are quite nice, much better than ours so maybe make them taste like ours do . Vile. Not many rely on these here, you’d get sick !

Ike = vile!! Ours taste of cardboard and plastic.

Well said, Miss A.

MissAdventure

There's a whole list of things people who are struggling, struggle with.
Carrying huge bags of potatoes to make as jackets. Or perhaps spending three or four pounds on the bus?
Storing these big bags of veg, rice, potatoes etc, and of course, keeping them fresh.
If I buy four potatoes for jackets, two of them will be beginning to turn green or sprout after just four or five days.
Having a freezer to store all these batch cooked wonder meals, or even a cooker for some people.
Its not as simple as deciding not to eat rice.

Well said.

It's so easy if you have a supermarket 10 yards away or a car, a freezer, the means to cook other than microwave.

His thinking was obviously directed at families.

Its a good point that a lot of those who are struggling with the cost of food are single people who cant afford economies of scale. Its often difficult to eat a variety of fruit or vegetables because you gave to eat the same thing fir several days to use ot up.

Ive often walked away from a food purchase because the price for a small quantity is so much higher than for a large amount or because I don't want the large amount.

There's a whole list of things people who are struggling, struggle with.
Carrying huge bags of potatoes to make as jackets. Or perhaps spending three or four pounds on the bus?
Storing these big bags of veg, rice, potatoes etc, and of course, keeping them fresh.
If I buy four potatoes for jackets, two of them will be beginning to turn green or sprout after just four or five days.
Having a freezer to store all these batch cooked wonder meals, or even a cooker for some people.
Its not as simple as deciding not to eat rice.

Cooking from scratch is only for those who can afford it.Those in poverty are not buying ready meals from supermarkets, far too expensive. They are buying food from Take away shops on rundown shopping parades in the areas where poverty is endemic.

These are places the majority of us ever do more than drive past. McDonalds, the creme de la creme of fast food take away chains charges £1. 39 for a cheeseburger, £2 59 for a double cheeseburger, sausage sandwich with brown sauce £1.99. they also do smaller portions that are even cheaper.

Now,as I say, Mc Donalds is the top of the tree fast food retailer. Now think what a burger chicken or kebab shop on a rundown urban parade charges for much poorer quality food, from unknown destinations where death was a sweet relief to every chicken or other animal.

Yes, I am sure there are people on GN who could provide food for a family of 4, 3 good meals a day for less than £30 a week, but at that point you need to be a very skilled and inventive cook, with the time to spend searching for bargains and cooking it. Assuming that your cooking facilities stretch to more than a microwave.

Those in poverty lack both the time - they are often in employment and juggling several part time jobs - or in ill health.

Cossy

greyfur16

Gosh, I'm not a virtuous rescuer I hope.

The whole ready meal debate is complicated.

So much gone wrong, it's overwhelming really.

Perhaps she meant me? Good old virtual signalling again?

Anybody who leaps to the defence of people they consider somehow in need of their defence.

It seems to be to be much more of a judgement of those people as inferior and in need of superior support than my simple observation of the choices they make.

The suggested “basics” were mostly things you can buy cheaply anyway and required time and energy (personal and purchased).

Im willing to bet nobody has asked these “struggling families” what exactly they are struggling to buy. Im guessing it wont be the suggested rice - 72p for a kilo.

The old "cook from scratch" argument has been done to death.
I've eaten probably two ready meals in my life; can't afford them and think they're awful anyway.

Honestly I am sick to death of the SNP bad stories

Maybe if they had some decent policies the ‘SNP bad stories’ would stop.

When the SNP doesn’t know what’s going on in its own back garden, people have the right to complain how they spaff money on baby boxes that have produced no measurable improvement in children’s lives, have given another half a million quid to Gaza, squander yet more money on school bags (four different colours, doncha know!) for all P1 children and numerous other giveaways to those who want to live a life filled with freebies. All paid for by those who can be bothered to get out of bed each morning and end up being clobbered by higher and higher taxes for daring to be hardworking and aspirational. By the way, what did happen to all the free laptops and bicycles the SNP said they’d dole out?? Still sitting in warehouses, I was told.

"Maybe they spend what they can afford on food?"

Other factors will be relative, of course, such as the cost of housing, fuel prices etc.

But the fact remains that we in this country do spend a much lower percentage of income on food.
Foo prices are going to rise too.

greyfur16

Gosh, I'm not a virtuous rescuer I hope.

The whole ready meal debate is complicated.

So much gone wrong, it's overwhelming really.

Perhaps she meant me? Good old virtual signalling again?

JenniRen

"It's caused by global issues beyond the control of UK supermarkets or farmers. A combination of higher fuel costs, higher fertiliser costs, higher animal feed costs and climate change ."

"Farmers will only produce food if they can make a living from it."

Sadly true and it could get worse with changes in climate.
It's not just here, it's a global issue.

People in this country spend a relatively low proportion of their income on food in comparison to many other countries.

Maybe they spend what they can afford on food?

In terms of all supermarket trolleys being filled with snacks and ready meals, is this all that’s in these trolleys?

Close family (by marriage) live on low incomes. Mum no longer works due to medical issues, but she does have a motorbility car and she uses to shop at Aldi, Lidle and farm foods. She cooks fresh meals from scratch every day. She has a large family and simply cannot afford “ready meals” she buys fresh veg in season and combines them with either mince or chicken.

She gets supplies of frozen vegs, like peas and sweet corn, and treats like ice-cream from farm foods.

Lots of younger people, (she’s 46), can and do bother to cook. She uses and eats eggs, cheese and lots of jacket potatoes and buys fruit when it’s the end of the day and supermarkets mark these products down.

It’s disingenuous to suggest many people live how you might be suggesting.

Personally when I’m in a supermarket, not very often, as we have our shopping delivered, I’m normally to busy trying to get out d the shop to be noting what everyone else has in their trolleys.

Excuse grammar, that popup keeps overriding my post.