If food shelves are empty “due to Brexit”, how come we’re now buying 25% more?

This report has been co-published with our affiliated organisation, Brexit Facts4EU.Org.  We are most grateful for their original research into the raw data which backs what follows.

We put empty French shelves on display and exposes UK myths

An analysis of food shopping in Brexit Britain, using official data

We have analysed the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, to reveal the truth about the “empty food shelves because of Brexit” myth propagated by some on social media. We also provide an example from France of almost empty shelves in a supermarket there.

This report forms part of our work as an affiliated organisation of CIBUK – the longest-established organisation for independence, democracy and freedom in the United Kingdom. Our research feeds into CIBUK’s ‘Clear Water Project’ as well as into its ‘Rebuttal Unit’.

This is not all because of recent food price inflation

This increase in the value of food shopping cannot be attributed to recent food price inflation, as it has been happening over the last six years – well before the recent hikes in prices. Nevertheless, we should state that inflation is clearly one factor in all of this.

The key point is this: If Britain’s food shelves are empty because of Brexit, how have we all managed:-

1. Not to starve?
2. To spend almost 25% more on food, rather than (say) 50% less?
3. Why aren’t there riots in the streets?

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The French Connection – “Let them eat cake”

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In fact, the French supermarket concerned explained this to their customers in a formal notice:-

“Given the tensions in the market linked to the suspension of exports of certain raw materials from Ukraine, operators in the food sector are faced with supply difficulties leading them to modify their recipes, without the possibility of quickly correcting their packaging.”

For the record, the last time a member of our team attempted to take a photo in a French supermarket he found himself being interrogated by a security official and the photos had to be deleted before he was allowed to leave.

Marie Antoinette is alleged famously once to have said “Let them eat cake [brioche]” when told that her peasant subjects were starving. As our readers will know, as wife of Louis XVI (from the age of 14) she was the last Queen of France before the French Revolution of 1789.

In fact, brioche is actually very tasty, but it must have been the simplest form of food Marie Antoinette could imagine at the time.

Whilst the origin of this quote is disputed, readers will get the point.

For the full article, click here: https://facts4eu.org/news/2022_jun_brexit_shopping