THREAD. A number of people have responded to this tweet that there is nothing wrong with a company a) making a profit and b) that supermarket margins are in any case low. Both of these things are true. But the supermarket sector is unlike any other. A bit of background. 1/

https://twitter.com/jayrayner1/status/1767277577385771507

In the UK just 12 companies control around 95% of food retail. The big supermarkets have in effect become custodians of the country's food supply chain. That's not just a retail sector. It is a vital resource. How did we get here? There are a bunch of reasons. 2/

THREAD: last month I wrote about the next stage of Brexit: delayed border controls for food stuffs coming into the UK, which would crush supply from small EU producers and exacerbate food inflation. Lo, those controls have been delayed for a fifth time 1/
theguardian.com/politics/2023/… On the one hand there's the relief of respite from an avalanche of costly bureaucracy. Many in hospitality and food retail will see this as a positive. And in the short term it is. But let's drill down for the moment on why this situation exists. Cos it's not good 2/

SALAD VEG, A THREAD: saying I told you so is not attractive; that doesn't mean it's not worth saying. For ten yrs I've argued that the running down of UK farming leaves us vulnerable to external shocks. Here's the paper I wrote for @michaelgove in 2017 1/ jayrayner.co.uk/blog/michael-g… A bit of a summary. As a result of various govt policies over decades a dozen or so supermarket businesses now control 95% of food retail. They have used that power to undermine the financial base of UK farming. Self sufficiency has fallen because we haven't paid enough. 2/

THREAD: Energy Bill Support Grant. I have just been notified that I will get £67 a month off my energy bills under the govt scheme. For enormous numbers of people this support will be absolutely vital. But it won't be vital for everyone, and that includes me. (PLS RT) 1/ I don't relish paying more for energy, but I am fortunate enough to be able to do so. The same will be true of many other people. Unsurprisingly for this dysfunctional govt, the policy is completely unfocussed. But those of us who can afford to do so, can focus it for them. 2/

For a decade from about ‘95 I covered a bunch of stories involving the met: The murder of Stephen Lawrence, the McPherson inquiry, the botched investigation of the murder of Michael Menson, various miscarriages of justice. What was striking during that period - 1/ Was how the Met seemed to change. It didn’t feel like lip service. I remember being shown anti racism ‘tool kits’ and manuals. I talked to a generation of mid ranking officers who seemed to genuinely understand the complexities of the multi ethnic city they were policing 2/

THREAD: There’s one line in my Nazi piece today that I hesitated over: that the election of Corbyn caused a rise in hard left anti Semitism. I hesitated not because it’s untrue; it very much is. But because it would provoke denials. Here are some. This is my reply to them all: 1/ From 2016 onwards every anti Semite going felt it was open season. Sometimes it wore the Cloak of a certain ideology; other times it was just blatant. I got the tweets. I got the emails. I got ad hominem stuff. It turned me back to thinking about Althans 2/

PITI PATELS EYEBROWS - A THREAD(ing). Things need to be unpicked around this Home Office spending story. Firstly the history: it started with a thread by @MaryCAtkinson which was picked up by @WritesBright of @BylineTimes. You can read that piece here 1/ bylinetimes.com/2021/03/24/hom… In the way of Twitter, I didn't see the @WritesBright piece at first. I responded to a screengrab of some of the expenses, in particular the ref to a restaurant called Pollyana, which neither I nor Marina O'Loughlin had heard of. Seemed odd given our combined knowledge 2/

THREAD: the shop pictured here might not look like much, but AK Food And Wines on Half Moon Lane in Herne Hill, is brilliant. It always stocks what the supermarkets don't and sells them at reasonable prices. Now the rapacious Dulwich Estate is forcing them to close. 1/ Yup, in the depths of a pandemic Dulwich Estate has forced a convenience shop, one which has been a backbone of the community throughout the lockdowns, to pack up - by offering an unsustainable rent renewal, on both the shop and the flat upstairs. 2/

THREAD. This is odd. Yesterday the Times criticised an old column of mine. Today it’s the Daily Mail. Apparently I dismissed the @HenryDimbleby national food strategy which proposed the same free school meals plan i and other ‘lefties’ are now praising @MarcusRashford for. 1/ Here for reference is the Andrew Pierce column if you fancy a read, complete with a wilful misreading of my column. 2/ dailymail.co.uk/debate/article…

This crisis is not over just cos we’re bored of it. However I’ve been an avid respondent to and follower of the kings college Covid app project under @timspector. They’ve just changed their analysis and it strikes me as good news. Read about it here 1/ covid.joinzoe.com/post/data-upda… In thumbnail, until today they’ve been showing prevalence of Covid as a percentage by county/ borough. At its peak it was shown as 6% of pop in worst hit areas and could be measured in millions. It’s been heading downwards for weeks and was at 133,000 cases yesterday 2/

SHORT THREAD: it is no surprise and yet still infuriating that the GB govt is clearly now entertaining allowing chlorine washed chicken on to our shelves. To be clear, the issue here is not the chlorine. The problem is why it's used. 1/
independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi… Raising chickens in large flocks is a dirty business, however it's done. There are two ways to deal with risk. Either, as happens in the UK, there are limits on flock sizes and higher welfare to reduce infection from the start. 2/

THREAD: One of the biggest issues faced by restaurants (see today's report) is the behaviour of landlords. Some have been great. Some much less so. But the huge landlord whose approach startled me was The Crown Estate, ultimate proprietor HM The Queen. theguardian.com/food/2020/apr/… 1/ As I say, some have been brilliant. I am hearing that Derwent, Shaftesbury Estates and Argent (Kings cross development) have all told restaurateurs to suspend rent for the coming months. Quite right too. If they don't do that, those restaurants will go out of business 2/

Thread. Nour Cash and Carry is a vital resource for the Brixton community. It sells a vast range of food at low prices, serving many immigrant + ethnic communities. Now the new Brixton markets landlord, Hendo Enterprises is trying to get them out. This mustn't happen. Pls RT 1/ Nour have been on their site for 20 years. Hendo Enterprises say they need to build a substation. I'm hearing Nour were offered a space in Brixton Village that a) hasn't been built yet b) is smaller c) is at a vastly increased rent d) on a relatively short lease 2/

A thread on (some) academics and their interest in media coverage. It's detailed but bare with me. In the middle of November I was emailed by Dr Stephanos Avakian, senior lecturer at the Business school @uniofbrighton. Would I be interested in their research on diet trends? 1/ In particular they were looking at 'long term standing foods that attracted less attention over the years yet they remain more stable in terms of their proven added-value on health. We are particularly interested in snacking foods.' Clear as mud. But still, I had a question. 2/

THREAD. Let me tell you a story. Though my ma, Claire, died in 2010 and my dad in 2015 my sister and I weren't able to get their ashes together until earlier this year (for reasons I won't bore you with). We'd long planned to scatter them in appropriate places. In april we did 1/ My dad Des Rayner, was a terrific painter (read more about him here: theguardian.com/artanddesign/2…). He'd always said the nearest he'd get to Tate Britain was if his ashes were scattered on the steps so that was the first stop.I was sitting on those steps scattering the ashes when...2/

I’ve been watching the response to @DavidLammy’s comments on #marr today. And you know what: I’m right there with him. In the past three years I have received more anti-Semitic abuse - emails, tweets, sometimes directly to me- than ever before. The question is... 1/

https://twitter.com/davidlammy/status/1117381533885706245

When do we just shrug it off? Say it’s just a lunatic fringe? the left are mired in a cess pool of anti-semitism they don’t know how to deal with (because not enough of the leadership fully disagree); the right has rampant islamophobia, petty nationalists retweeting 2/

Short thread: having spent 4 days in lovely Finland I think I’ve stumbled on the British disease, the thing that has enabled a bunch of foetid nostalgists to over estimate our significance as a nation and our ability to strike out alone in the world: it’s the English language 1/ The Finns have a clear-eyed view of their place in the world. They are a proud nation (and rightly; oh, that education system) but understand that they sit within a tight knot of other interesting nations. They also know their language is weirdly obscure 2/

Thread: We shouldn't be surprised the US Ambassador @woodyjohnson4 wants the UK to embrace chlorine washed chicken as part of a post Brexit FTA but we should tell him where he can stick it. Because, contrary to what he says, it's risky stuff. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-474261… 1/ A Southampton Uni study that I reported on last year found that chlorine washing doesn't kill pathogens; it just makes then non-culturable. The study was on salad vegetables but the lead scientist made clear to me that it applied to chicken as well theguardian.com/world/2018/may… 2/

For the past 2 years I’ve been writing detailed, reported pieces about the negative impact of Brexit. I make sure to gather robust evidence, precisely because it’s so complex. None of the rabid tweets from brexiteers in response has ever contained a verifiable or accurate fact 1/ Indeed the overwhelming majority don’t even attempt to muster evidence. They booody hate facts. They are either the infantile equivalent of ‘it’s happening’ through childish abuse to hollow abuse which is frankly rather more sinister 2/

For the sake of detail here is what Chris Grayling said yesterday about us having to grow more 1/

https://twitter.com/SamCoatesTimes/status/919518380293541888

In one respect he's right. Britain needs to produce more. Our self sufficiency is down to around 60%. 2/