Every Little Helps

From the dairy farms of Britain to the banana plantations of the Windward Islands, they want Mandelson to come good on an ombudsman for British supermarkets. So he should. For a start.

It is very high time to make the supermarkets fund investment in agriculture and small business (investment to be determined in close consultation with the National Farmers’ Union and the Federation of Small Businesses) by means of a windfall tax, to be followed if necessary by a permanently higher flat rate of corporation tax.

In either case, there must be strict regulation to ensure that the costs of this are not passed on to suppliers, workers, consumers, communities or the environment. By, for example, a Supermarkets Ombudsman. So, where and when would this position be advertised, and how and by whom would the eventual appointment be made?