It’s been the wettest winter in decades for farmers (Picture: Getty Images)
In today’s MetroTalk, readers discuss what’s poised to be an expensive period ahead for carb enthusiasts.
Our extremely wet weather has impacted the yield of wheat, barley, and oats, potentially driving up prices of bread, beer, and biscuits and more, due to the poor harvest.
Meanwhile, small steps towards meat reduction, remembering a nationalised rail service and what Rishi Sunak’s tax cuts means for public services. Because, if you think they’re bad now, chances are they’ll only get worse.
Share what you think about these topics and more in the comments
The weather has left fields too wet to plant new crops
A van is stranded in floodwater near Blyth, Northumberland, after Storm Kathleen earlier this month (Picture: Owen Humphreys/PA)
Once again, we have the annual farmer drama of the weather being too hot/cold/dry/wet and so is affecting crops and set to increase prices.
This time, analysts say reduced yields of wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape mean the price of beer, bread, biscuits and more will increase.
We can all see that the extreme wet weather has impacted us and so should be more sympathetic to price rises. Ted, Reading
Adopt a pig?
Might be easier to do a Meatless Monday (Credits: Getty Images)
To add my voice to those responding to Richard (MetroTalk, Fri) and his suggestion that if everybody adopted a vegan diet, every single livestock animal would have to be killed or set free.
Calm down. No one is asking everyone to stop eating meat overnight and pat all livestock on the rump, ushering them through gates saying, ‘be free, be free’.
The current consumption of meat-eating is just not sustainable and, you know, a bit bad for the environment.
Instead of a reduction, globally we’re seeing a year-on-year increase, with a correlating negative impact on care of livestock. Maybe Richard should try Meat Free Mondays – and adopt a pig. Nick, Camden
Remember British Rail?
Will trains be worse once they’re renationalised? (Credits: Getty Images)
Robert (MetroTalk, Mon) says Labour’s plans to take the rail service out of the private sector (and its need to make a profit) will lead to it being cheaper and more effective, with workers paid more.
He is clearly one of an increasing number of people who have forgotten just how bad British Rail was.
Privatisation reversed a steady fall in passenger numbers as more innovative, free-market thinking took hold.
Indeed, before the pandemic, the railways were carrying more passengers than they had done for 100 years.
As to Labour working with the unions, we have the example of London – run, of course, by Labour. Whenever a strike is threatened, Transport for London gives them what they want, which is exactly what the unions expect Labour to do nationally should they gain power.
It is telling, too, that Labour declined to confirm that fares would reduce under nationalisation. More tellingly, the party also admitted that services could be cut. All this is nothing more than a sop to the Labour left. John Daniels, Redhill
Should the number of standing passengers be limited due to safety concerns? (Credits: Getty Images)
I would throw my weight behind any person who addresses the disgraceful number of passengers allowed to continue to board trains which – as those already on board know – are clearly full.
There must be some sort of system or software that creates an alert when all seats are full and the permitted number of standing travellers is reached.
I’d like to hope that train passengers’ comfort and safety is as important as flying or catching a bus, but the trains that pass through my station all have a resemblance to the Mumbai Express. Billie Dixon, Stechford
Why is there so little preparation for the much-belated introduction of biosecurity measures on food entering the UK from the EU at our ports?
Talk about shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted!
Is this the result of government or civil service incompetence, or both? Peter Baker, Maidstone
More tax cuts, more problems
The Tories say that tax cuts mean the average worker will be £450 better off (Picture: Daniel Leal via Getty Images)
Why are people moaning about cuts to public services? Are British people really that unsavvy when it comes to politics? Cuts in tax and National Insurance mean less money for public spending – it’s as simple as that.
Furthermore, you’d better strap in, sit back and watch the car crash, as even more tax cuts are on the way.Marion, Glasgow
The Tories are once again using the technique of repeat-a-lie-big-enough-and-often-enough in wheeling out the tired old accusation that Labour bankrupted the country in 2008.
It was, as everybody well knows, a global financial crisis caused by greedy bankers, which had its roots in sub-prime lending and culminated in the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers (HQ in New York). But why let the truth get in the way of a decent soundbite?
Our most recent and damaging financial crisis was the Cameron-Osborne austerity programme, which starved the country of investment and cut public services to the bone – leaving us with crumbling schools, an inadequately staffed NHS and roads with more potholes than Tarmac.
There’s also the disaster that Brexit has become and no one wants to talk about. Julian Self, Wolverton
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