plashmar

🚨 🚩 The Brexit earthquake didn’t begin in 2016, it began in 1964. That year, Britain 🇬🇧 scrapped Resale Price Maintenance. A huge political earthquake that everyone has forgotten about. It was sold as giving consumers lower prices. What it actually did was shift power dramatically from manufacturers and small producers to giant retailers. Tesco and the supermarkets won big. Independent shops, high streets, and primary producers (including farmers) began a long, slow decline. This was the moment we started prioritising cheap imports and corporate scale over domestic production and resilience. The foundations of today’s broken food system, where farmers are squeezed and we rely on fragile global supply chains were laid then. Brexit was the latest tremor in a 60-year earthquake. The end of high streets and the hollowing out of British industry didn’t start with Brexit or EU membership, it began in 1964 when Resale Price Maintenance was scrapped. That decision empowered giant retailers to undercut everyone else, shifted power away from producers, and encouraged reliance on cheap imports. We lost the ability to protect and nurture our own manufacturing and farming base. This resulted in a consumer economy that worked while we were rich but left us vulnerable when times got harder. We don’t make enough, we can’t afford to make enough, and food security is now at risk.