LONG queues of coaches and cars trying to get onto Dover ferries and television pictures of empty shelves in British supermarkets have prompted renewed calls for Britain to rejoin the European Union. 

Social media has been full of messages from enraged consumers blaming Brexit for their inability to buy tomatoes and cucumbers that are usually readily available all year round and heaping ridicule on the hapless Secretary of State for Environment, Therese Coffey for suggesting that they eat turnips instead. 

Turnips aside, the claim that Brexit is responsible for the shortages is difficult to sustain. As stated in a previous issue of the Star, the principal reason for the paucity of fresh produce is British farmers’ understandable reluctance to grow crops at a loss, because of soaring energy bills combined with the supermarkets’ refusal to buy from them at a price that would at least cover their costs.