Momentum are getting stronger

Primrose Do you have any helpful suggestions for the lemonade seller? I don't think anyone else here cares about whether his business continues to do well, that would be planning getting the money (and continuing to get it into the future) so as to do what he wants with it once he has it, and would be considered as the dreaded Capitalism chasing the profit motive.

how do we encourage spending on things made in this country

Oooh, that has a back to the 60's ring to it. We're going to be 'Backing Britain' of course.

Problem is, I can't find much to buy these days that isn't made in China

So true Maizie, I remember I'm Backing Britain! I daresay if they were minded to the govt. could return to taht with some examples across sectors of British products - though as has been said earlier, sadly we no longer seem to produce many things other than services (and look where that got us...)

We will be digging for Britain soon if the government doesn't get its ass in gear. 80% of our fresh food comes from the EU. What planning has gone into this fact? Zilch

That's actually a really interesting and complex question Elegran as it covers so much.
Lemons imported from Sicily, sugar from Brazil. A global supply chain inside and outside the EU.... I'll have a think about it in the sunshine

Well it also depends on if the lemonade seller is actually making the lemonade or simply importing it and selling on. If he is making it what percentage of his workforce are from the EU? And will he have enough staff after Brexit to keep going? If he is importing he is likely to have substantial price increases. As for the duck is it a British duck? I have my doubts. Suspect it is an EU duck and has no right to be here bothering our lemonade sellers!

Problem is, I can't find much to buy these days that isn't made in China
Are you following this story MaizieD?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/new_silk_road

I must say I am impressed listening to Carrie Gracie chatting away in ?Mandarin to people she is interviewing. DGN is doing an intensive course so that he can teach it here to British schoolchildren.

I don't think that figure is correct whitewave - I think we import about 25% of our food from the EU, possibly another 25% from elsewhere in the world.

DH was wondering about a goat this morning ....

If everyone wants fresh lemons, then someone will supply them, and as they don't grow here as well as in they do in Sicily then they will come from Sicily. But milk is produced here, and meat, and fruit and vegetables.

Once we had a thriving industry extracting sugar from sugar-beet, but then the big suppliers went over completely to cane sugar.

Once we had coal mines and loads of trawlers, not to mention a steel industry. Can't see them coming back. Sicily and Italy can do milk, fruit and veg as well as lemons.

If the lemonade seller faces higher prices for lemons, could he diversify into apple juice from British apples? Has he the imagination to think up good or new ways of using local produce or adapt old recipes, the courage to experiment, the flexibility to change his production lines to accommodate fresh products?

Whoever his workforce are, he faces higher bills for employing them, both under Brexit and under a possible Corbyn government, not just wages but also the other proposed worker benefits. He will need to keep an eye on his cash flow.

(and higher prices for sugar and citric acid - that reminds me I must look out my old lemonade recipe. I've not made that since the children were young and consuming soft drinks by the gallon)

Yes, I was thinking along similar lines - green health shakes (not that they're my cup of tea, so to speak) and apple juice.

An alternative would be to hedge the currency against negative moves (so that whatever happened to the exchange rate, you can still buy your lemons for the same price in £) and use this competitive advantage to buy up all the other lemonade producers when they go out of business, as they cannot compete on price. Once you have a dominant market share and the barriers to entry are sufficiently high, you should be in a position to negotiate a better price for your lemons.

But I think solutions like that would be a bit inflammatory here at GN!

jalima yes I was wrong that's what happens when I'm typing trying to remember what I've just read.

The correct figures are

Import 80% of our fresh vegetables

And 40% of our fruit.

Sorry to confuse.

Are you sure?

I would have thought a higher percentage of fruit as we don't grow some of the fruits which we like to eat here in the UK but the shops seem well-stocked with British vegetables.

I wish to correct an outstanding misconception that some people have: I do not dislike Corbyn, nor do I recall ever having said that I did. Criticising some of his (or his supporters') policy ideas is not criticism of him.

That is the kind of misinterpretation that provoked me into sharper replies than perhaps I should have given to some posts. Not that I think the posts of some others to/about me are not equally sharp.

"muck raking" is a figure of speech that is not a comment on the character of the person who has raked up and displayed the information in question. It was appropriate where I used it because all that was said about JRM was negative. I'm not saying there that there is anything positive to say about him, just that there wasn't any displayed in the post(s) in question.

Actually, I like how he talks. It is clear and articulate, which is nice to hear when there is so much sloppy speech around.

I have taken on board some of the criticisms of my posts and will try, again, not to get riled by the snipiness directed at me. I think I had kept my cool until the servant comment.

eloethan, I do try to be courteous and I usually succeed. I was not being discourteous by not replying as soon as you expected to your query about the duck film. I just hadn't thought of how to answer because posting it was about a feeling I had rather than something I had verbalised.
And, yes, if people keep on saying negative things about me and keep saying things that are not true about me, and keep implying that I'm not telling the truth, I will eventually get angry and express my anger, which is why I expressed what I felt like saying after the onslaught of things like "you dislike Corbyn", "you don't have the courtesy to", "what did your last servant die of", "look it up yourself", etc.

Finally, nobody has to like every single thing about a political party to be its supporter. This should be obvious, I feel, when there is so much difference of opinion across both the UK's largest parties.

Well it's from the food report produced by a couple of Universities and reported in the Guardian. I could check it on google if you like.

As you were with the lemon juice and sugar, etc.

What a pity you still haven't learned how to do links, whitewave. This is one instance when I'd be interested to read it.

bags you are certainly posting more on the political threads lately and very welcome. But like I've had to learn over the last year or so you need to grow a thick skin. I started off probably like you expecting to be able to chat away about a particular topic, but it simply doesn't work like that. I've even tried to suggest keeping threads for particular viewpoints so that there was no argument but that didn't work either.
So I just argue away with everyone else if you can't beat 'em etc.

ana front page of the Guardian today, second column, bottom of article before turning page gives you the figures. Hope that helps.

There's a lot of information here

www.fdf.org.uk/eu-referendum-food-drink-statistics.aspx

however, just because we import tea, coffee and cocoa from the EU, doesn't mean there isn't an alternative market in perhaps Brazil and India for example.

It's OK whitewave

I have to go and make some bramble jelly from home-grown blackberries and Fair-trade sugar, 'helping farmers across the developing world'.
Not lemonade, sorry, but if life gives you blackberries then make bramble jelly as they say.

I've even tried to suggest keeping threads for particular viewpoints so that there was no argument but that didn't work either.
that isn't going to work! Threads could end up very one-sided.
So many differing viewpoints and who's to say who is right or who is wrong?

But one poster did start a thread a while ago suggesting we could all try to be polite.

No, it doesn't help whitewave. The online version of the Guardian isn't the same as the paper one and I'm not going out to buy one.

With regard to all our trade agreements at the moment in relation to fresh food. They have all been negotiated under the EU umbrella. These all become nul and void in Mch 19. We will have no trade agreements on day 1. We cannot under the rules start negotiating before that date. That is why the food security risks are so high.

WTO rules are not straight forward either and Argentina for one will undoubtedly make life difficult for us.