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In 1976 Food prices rose by 23.5%. So it's not surprising that £500 million worth of goods go to shoplifters every year. In one week this month price rises in Glasgow stores included mince up from 68p to 76p per lb., bacon up from 44p to 454p per half pound, 1ap on a half pound of lard, and 9p on a dozen eges.
With wages pegged back and unemployment rising, more and more people are turning to cneap substitute foods. But even that no longer provides a refuge from profiteers. At 56p a pound butter is setting beyond the reach of many families. Yet the Daily Record of 22 April reports that claims of a rise in vegetable oil prices will send the cost of margarine soaring.
The Labour government has been only too happy to Keep down wages rises. Indeed one union the Association of Technical Scientific and Managerial Staffs now thinks a 34% wage rise is needed for its workers to get back former living stundards. But the government nas rerused to control prices. Even where controls exist in theory, as on bread, increase after increase has been allowed
by the government.
The end result of the social contract is that the number of people living on or below the poverty line had risen to 13 million.