Letters / Food price cap an election gimmick
The SNP food price cap is an interesting gimmick from the party’s election manifesto in a campaign where election giveaways have been few and far between.
However, for them to call it a “public health intervention” is laughable, it is no more than an attempt to buy votes.
Importantly, the food price cap does not fix the cost-of-living crisis, it only massages it. Mainly, it ignores the real reason behind the cost-of-living crisis.
Net zero is the reason we have a cost-of-living crisis. Any candidate who says otherwise is not paying attention to their electricity bill.
All electricity bill payers are subsidising various renewable energy options to the hilt. One third of your electricity bill is the cost of the electricity that you have used, one third!
The rest is mainly subsidies to renewables. Businesses are having to pass on their increased electricity costs to customers. Why has the UK got the highest electricity prices in the western world, why has the North of Scotland got the highest electricity prices in the UK? It is because of UK government policy, which the SNP goes along with.
Due to the war in Iran, transport companies’ costs are increasing so their costs can be added on to the cost-of-living crisis, wrong time to be at the far end of the supply chain!
Any party can bring in any policy decoration that they want, but if the net zero effects continue on electricity bills, then the cost-of-living crisis continues on and on. Drop net zero, start again.
I see the SNP food price cap, as no more than an election gimmick, a vote buyer. I see this gimmick as a subsidy towards supermarkets, rather than an effort towards dropping the cost of living.
I wonder how the supermarkets are supposed to ensure that those who need the discounted food most, actually get to it first.
Access to supermarkets depends on where you live, in rural Walls and islands like Unst areas that can mean a long round trip, and how can you be guaranteed to arrive when the discounted material is there? The pledge itself says there will be a limited number of items. Are small rural/island shops going to be included in this scheme?
I have heard it said that this gimmick is another SNP stick to hit London government with, such a pity that they are more interested in scoring points than in getting Scotland independent!
Brian Nugent
Alliance to Liberate Scotland and sovereignty candidate for Shetland
