If the first job of a government is national security the second probably ought to be food security. Odd, then, that the SNP seems to be pursuing a policy of national starvation.
During May’s Holyrood election, economists – as well as anyone with a brain – panned the governing party’s manifesto commitment to introduce price caps on essential foods sold in supermarkets. This was an unnecessary electoral stunt that no one in the party had any intention of actually delivering.
Today, the Scottish government has begun going through the motions of pretending they will try to implement the policy by announcing a consultation period and releasing the draft Food Price Cap (Scotland) Bill.
One of the first things critics of the price caps pointed out was that supply would very quickly evaporate. The SNP’s announced plan – then, as now – was to force large grocery shops to provide at least one product range in each food category at a price deemed affordable by whoever the minister of foodstuffs is.
The trouble with that is the obvious disincentive it creates for shop managers. Why would you stock ample supplies of milk, bread or eggs at loss-making prices when you can just provide a handful of items which very quickly sell out, forcing customers back to the normally priced ranges.
As it turns out, the poor civil servants tasked with drafting the bill have dealt with that problem by creating an even worse one. Subsection 1(3) of the bill states that shops have a duty to offer (stock) the price-capped products ‘at all times during which’ other items of that range are on sale.
In other words, it creates a statutory duty to never sell out.
This is bit like trying to legislate to ban the laws of thermodynamics or gravity. If ever enacted it would be the law that if Tesco want to sell bread – any bread – it must always make sure a loaf is on sale at the price cap level.
It’s obvious what happens next. Everyone bar a few sourdough fanatics buys the cheap loaf, which quickly sells out. The supermarket is then legally required to start selling the other breads in the range below their the market value or stop selling bread at all. Either way, bread will fairly quickly fall of the menu. Businesses which fail to defy gravity will face unlimited fines.
It would be difficult to overstate how stupid some Scottish ministers are, but they are surely not so galaxy-brain-thick as to not realise this. That’s why it seems clear the real plan is for this cynical election stunt to be quietly discarded.
The government’s lawyers have continually told them such a bill would fall foul of various legal hurdles, including the UK’s internal market. This would provide a handy get-out for John Swinney – he can say that he has been blocked from eradicating food poverty by evil Westminster.
That, presumably, is the point.
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