George Tyndale : let Tesco sponsor Britain

By George Tyndale on Apr 23, 09 05:57 PM

Tesco has just announced a 10 per cent leap in profits, which means it is making ÃÂ£8.6 million a day.

The key reason for this extraordinary result is that it has dramatically increased the price of food.

So in the middle of the worst recession for 60 years we have an organisation making a record ÃÂ£3 billion in profit by putting up the cost of eating by almost 10 per cent.

See you back here at the weekend with my verdict of new weight loss drug alli ...

And it has not hiked the basics to recognise the plight of its struggling suppliers or to help out hard up producers.

Research shows that all the supermarkets have trousered most of the increased income themselves.

With cheese, for example, they have snatched 93% of the increase for themselves. With eggs they are taking 83% of the extra cost.

Could anything better demonstrate the hold that the major retailers - and Tesco in particular - have over the population?

They send prices rocketing, they siphon off up to 47% of the sale price and still we obediently and mindlessly trudge through the ever-open doors to stuff more money into the till.

Tesco already has more than 2,000 stores and takes ÃÂ£1 in every ÃÂ£8 spent in the High Street.

After cut-price clothing, they are now moving on through homewares and into insurance and banking.

The company already employs 280,000 of us.

It has long been a nightmare of mine that Tesco will one day take over the entire nation and given our current financial plight the dreadful day cannot be far off.

For the payment of, say ÃÂ£1 billion (well, every little helps) they will become our official national sponsors.

It won't be called Britain anymore it will be called Tesco Britain.

Chief Executive Terry Leahy will sit in the cabinet.

And on budget day the Chancellor will hold up his papers in a Tesco carrier bag (which he will be careful to re-use naturally).

Oh well, at least there will be plenty of parking space.