The Libertarian Alliance: BLOG

David Davis 

Today’s oily Torygraph had a piece here, about the “competition commission” (WHY IS THERE ONLY ONE?) and its report on whether to let Multiple Grocers (this is what these outfits really are) acquire more sites.

As our readers know, I have never failed to be the defender of “supermarkets” - especially out-of-town ones, which help poor overworked middle-class workers and families to have cheap nice food, frequently flown from all over the world even out of season (which helps 3rd-world growers too) in five minutes flat, with free parking.

The torygraph didn’t publish my comment, probably because I said in it ”we have not time to scratch our bums, let alone get on park-and-rides, and walk about with sagging bags to to shop in nice little chatty grocers….”, and I foolishly failed to save it in Word. Never mind.

But why are o-o-t supermarkets so popular, and why are “independent town-centre” grocers and others going to the wall? The government has done the following things to bring this about:

(1) It has almost criminalised private driving into towns and city centres. If not criminal yet, it is seriously expensive and circumscribed. And families need large tonnages of stuff, not a hand-basketfull.

(2) It has almost criminalised farming (we all wait to hear what baleful regulations and costs DEFRA - or whatever it’s called this week - will load onto the surviving English farmers soon. This means there is seemingly redundant land which nobody is allowed to do anything with. Building brezze-block-and-cardboard houses cheek-by-jowl? Four million of them, for Brown’s dependency-votariat? Or two thousand supermarkets? Which is more useful and puts less strain on the drainage and sewage systems? Your say!

(3) To pay existing taxation levels and yet live, people have to work so hard, especially if unemployed. there is no time to wander about quaint towns in search of what you need, probably from 125 diffent shops, while not being allowed near your car.

These market distortions are chiefly responsible for the situation that the state has got itself into. If farming was still allowed in England in particular, and largely deregulated, then green belt land would be too expensive for “developers” to play with, and state planning departments would have nobody to be schmoozed up the arse by, would lose importance, and would go on permanent sick leave due to “stress” - a good thing overall.

If driving and parking in town centres was allowed or much cheaper, “little independent shops” which Green Nazis and Friends of the Earth masturbate about in public, would do better. More rich people (who have no time) and poor people (who might) could patronise them.

I quote form Sir Terry Leahy here, from the torygraph article;

However, the supermarkets have frequently argued that their success has come from offering an ever wider and increasingly cheap range of goods.

Moreover, by opening their stores for longer, they have helped make their shoppers’ lives more convenient.

Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, last week launched a passionate defence of supermarkets.

“There is always a divide in society between those who trust people, and those who say people cannot be trusted,” he said.

“Well, I put my trust in people, in consumers. Supermarkets are their creation. We prosper and grow by delivering what they want.

“That is our role in society. And our success is a shared success, one that benefits all.’’