Food Industry Competitiveness

The hon. Gentleman may take the view that if he reads something in a report, he must agree with it. I do not take that view. I think that the quote he has just given is utter drivel. He might be taken in by any report, written by anybody. The fact that something is in a report does not make it any more sensible than if somebody down the street said it without any evidence whatever; it is still drivel. I thought that he was going to say that I had a good point about the Liberal Democrats saying something just for three extra votes in Cornwall, but he disappointed me on that. The proposal is ludicrous. It will have no benefit whatever for the consumer—quite the reverse. If we think about it for a second, the UK grocery market is worth about £130 billion a year. If the ombudsman managed to extract from supermarkets an extra 1 per cent. in payment for suppliers, an extra £1.3 billion a year in costs would be passed on to consumers. If people want consumers to have that extra bill, and if they think that it is a price worth paying to have the ombudsman, let them at least have the decency, courage and honesty to stand up and say so. What I cannot stomach is the idea that we can promote painless panaceas and that more regulation will benefit consumers, supermarkets and suppliers. Clearly, that is ridiculous; it will not happen. Although it comes as no surprise that the Government and Lib Dems have gone down that line of state intervention, I am genuinely saddened that the Conservative party believes that that is the way forward.