Household tips from the PM

Nick

MPs get around £5000 a year tax free just for food - that can't encourage care.

Brown and his government could have done something about that last week.

He didn't.

What a lot of tosh.
What next from this numptee? Government Inspectors checking our bags at Supermarket checkouts to see whether we have bought too much?
Roll on Glasgow East and the unelected Brown forced to spend more time with his family........

The timing of Gordon's advice is rather interesting! It all rather smacks of 'I can't/won't do anything as your PM to reduce costs (largely because the extra tax on fuel is bolstering my balance) so I am putting the monkey on all your backs!' Saves me having to blame myself or take proper action against oil producers.

Phew - thanks for helping us Gordon! Oh and by the way - does your food bill get paid by the Country?

What a hypocrite. Gordon has no credibility as he wasted billons of our tax pounds. Shut Mr Brown, and go away.

Nick

I got my food allowance figure from another blog entry of yours

https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2008/06/cost_of_expense.html

At the end of which you say that HMRC don't tax expenses for 'working away from home'.

Ignoring which house an MP claims to be their 'home' for the moment...

HMRC will only not-tax expenses if they are incurred 'wholly, exclusively and necessarily' in connection with your business.

Have you checked whether they verify this for MPs claims? (apart from the sudden decison to to a 'random audit' on David Davis (now theres a coincidence)).

It seems MPs are trusted to ensue that expenses are only claimed where they are 'wholly, exclusively and necessarily' - on the face of it, they don't seem to...

What utter utter garbage from a failing "leader". Not content with watching and interfering in our lives already Gordon Brown wants to interfere in another part of our lives.

How much is your salary again? How much do you get in expenses perks? And yet you have the nerve to tell people to save their leftovers? Hypocrite.

Come out from your fantasy land and live on a single parent's benefit for a month. Then we can see just how frugal and creative you can really be.

Ar last a viable position for Hazrl Blears. She can check out citizens' rubbish bins, and any food thrown away can be transported to MPs homes to make Brown Meatloaf. The poor old things need it as they have two households each to provide for - the first and the second home!

How about:

"Stop wasting our money, Gordon"

Nick

I have heard a rumour that Gordon will be in his bunker during the East Glasgow by-election.

If he does actually put his head above the ramparts and decides to show his face in that by-election then I presume he will be preaching this to the good people of Shettleston, on their doorsteps.

Nick please dont tell him this would be a sure fire vote winner…for the SNP.

This topic is typical of the reason why Brown is finished. The other reason he is finished is that he doesn't even realise it!

With the continuing backing of his equally useless cabinet colleagues it's not likely to get any better for him either - thankfully.

What on earth makes him believe that 60 million Britons creating less waste will affect world food prices? This is the same argument he uses over greenhouse gases. We reduce them by 20% by the year 2020 and China opens several new coal-fired power stations.

A man out of touch with the people and reality.

Leave now and give us all a break.

You've captured the arguments well here, Nick and placed a lot of strands all into context.

On the issue of wasted food, Brown should put his own house in order before lecturing us on waste.

https://theorangepartyblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/stop-wasting-our-time-brown.html

And, sadly the G8 leaders will do nothing about world poverty or crucially biofuels.

https://theorangepartyblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/leaders-turn-blind-eye-to-world-poverty.html

Re #2 from adrianfife2 and #3 from Jabbajake

How ungrateful. The Supreme Leader managed to spare some time away from the golden trough he and the important people have their snouts in to give us some prudent advice and you complain.

I se GB as given up trying to be PM and is attempting to become my mother.

Unfortunately that position is currenlty filled and I have no plans to make any changes to current personnel assignments.

It is interesting to read the comments.
Along with all the other waste issues of Western style living food is a very important one. We are continually encouraged to buy more and more. How did we ever manage when we had to buy our groceries from the corner shop?
At some point this is unsustainable, does this sounds familiar.
Yet whan a politician states the obvious he is ridiculed.
All the supermarkets expect to increase their market share, sales and profits, clearly this must be wrong.
Shopping has got out of control. It is plain wrong for us to throw food away, and we are almost being encouraged to do this by the way it is sold.
In future the human race will look back in shame at what we now are doing with food and many other aspects of our lifestyle.

##The message of the Gallagher Report is, apparently, that the ministers should subsidise "good" biofuels - ie those that don't substitute for food - and not "bad" ones that do.##

Any extra level of complexity that our current government would digest about as easily as a house brick!

"Has Prudence left the Treasury to move into the nation's kitchens?"

What planet have you been living on, Nick? Prudence packed her bags and left the Treasury at least 8 years ago.

The obvious point you should have made instead is the contrast between Brown's silly exhortations for us to waste less food and the phenomenal waste of taxpayers' money he has presided over.

Is Brown using the same survey a few months ago with a ridiculously small sample population? The one that included bones and tea bags as food waste?

Gordon's 'Cones Hotline Moment'?

I would like to know if the PM does know the price of a loaf of bread or a pint of milk. If you can ask that Nick then we can see if he is in touch or not.
As far as this issue is concerned, surely he would be better to get people to compost and not bin food waste as that would save the country money. Also he would be better to ask his chancellor to drop the fuel duty by a few pennies this month, whereas at the moment they are taking and taking.
UK PLC is almost on its knees and this fool is telling us to eat up our leftovers, heaven help us!

Let's face it - there's nothing wrong with reducing food waste so we can't fault GB on what he has said. The problem is, as others have replied, I am angry that our PM has gone to the G8 summit and said it! Surely his job, is to influence other country leaders to increase food production or something similar and get a junior minister (or a non-political ally) to tell us to increase our domestic stew production.

He does this on every issue - ignores what people are saying is the solution and goes for something other solution which just makes people think he is out of touch (e.g. asking opec to produce more oil rather than reduce duty)

GB wins a Gold Medal for Stupidity

Thanks to his tax and spend policies most of the country has already tightened its belt and is trying to waste less food.

What he has done is classic Broon "Its not my fault, Food prices arent higher because of my failed policy on Biofuels or my No1 in the world fuel duty taxation or my VAT on fuel tax policy,Or indeed the leftovers from the last mansion house banquet. Its because you failed to eat your crusts and you through out all the food in your cupboard that had reached the government imposed use by date, Especially all those jars of honey that you thought you could keep forever."

It is a shame that the PM is getting lambasted for pointing out what has been pointed out before. What would be interesting is seeing how the average cost was calculated. Surely the Common Agricultural Policy has a role to play as well? I reckon that many who are used to a tight budget don't waste that much food. I know our bin is usually full of packaging. I think the PM has said this at a bad time. You know off to a summit where surely extravagance awaits. What he should do is encourage us all to go out and pick wild fruit once they have ripened! A small punnet of raspberries costs £1.89 in some places when if you look you can find them for free! Also brambles at the end of the summer! What he could also say is that he plans his households week worth of meals. Not as easy as he says. A couple of days is probably better and more realistic. Good luck in Japan Nick!

How about a grown up debate on food waste and and the global problems surrounding supply? It seems a shame that the anti GB bloggers cant scratch enough brain cells together to have a proper debate!

Like anyone is really not going to pick up that second net of tangerines when it's got BOGOF written on it!

What idiot advised GB to make this statement? Or was it his own idea?

Coming days after MPs, presumably with his covert encouragement or at least tacit agreement, voted to keep their snouts in the trough, this smacks of a leader who is completely out of touch if not worse.

"Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad."

@#23

Well Metalwork its good to see your input to the debate.
I will answer your points one by one here.



Oh wait I cant there werent any!

I'm not taking any advice on 'waste' from GB. Quite apart from anything else it's a statement of the b................. obvious. If we don't know this already we must be fools! There have been innumerable documentaries and news items on this very subject in the past few months. Don't ask me why. It stands to reason that you don't buy more than you can afford and then compound the crime by wasting it. Sound familiar?

My granny used to tell me 'Waste not want not". From a granny to a child - good advice. From a Prime Minister to a nation - patronising, wholly ineffective guff.

Gordon must know very well that :
- the proportion of food waste represented by thrown out food is miniscule, not to mention the impact of biofuels
- the people hit hardest by price increases are the least likely to be throwing out food, use by date notwithstanding.
- the people who can afford to throw out eight pounds worth per week on average will carry on regardless.
- even if the problem was eliminated, the reduction in waste/weekly food spend would not cause a corresponding drop in prices.

The other headline grabber re no return to the old ways with the unions - a classic Billy Bunter defence. "I didn't take the cream cake from behind the bread bin on the top shelf" cries Billy - before anybody had noticed it was missing.

This puerile stuff surely gives lie to the talk of Alistair C being back in the fold. In his day, the headline diversions helped Labour and/or damaged the Tories.

If I was Labour supporter I would despair. If I was a Tory I'd be quite happy to let GB make the running. I'm neither but the banality of them all is a bit depressing.

I think that we all should have web-cams in out fridges connected through to the Ministry of Food Waste run by a cabinet minister.
I propose Hazel Blears as the best candidate.

She could then employ Inspectors of Food Waste who could come round and lock us up for wasting food.

Now about knife crime and Terrorist agitators. Let them go free as it is against their human rights to keep them incarcerated in jail. Far better to allow them to create mayhem on the street.

While "Phil" Mac Cavity's away the cats will play.

Mind your shopping while I hire a luxury jet to fly me to Hokaido to talk about 'green issues'.

Gordon you must be one of the thickest.........................skinned politicans this country has ever seen.

To use an acronym you seem to disapprove of, Gordon BOGOF (thats buy one, get one free, but I'll leave it up to everyone else to see if thats what I really mean).

Gordon Brown is a Stalinist fool. His weekly pronouncements on global poverty, oil prices, food use and the like are as ineffectual as a Pravda Tractor Production newsletter.

The man seems incapable of dealing with reality. Our country is in real trouble economically, but he wants us to give more money to Africa. Food prices are rising but he refuses to deal with the CAP and CFP or to fight the EU's biofuels targets. Fuel prices are rising but he demands higher production rather than cutting fuel duty.

It can't be just me who thinks that the answers to most of the problems are obvious, and who wonders how it's possible for Gordon Brown to get it so badly wrong every single time.

In a perverse way I’m quite enjoying Comrade Brown’s daily sermons on how we should live our lives. A couple of points though:

a) Will Labour now issue targets to households to force them to reduce waste food?

b) I notice that Brown isn’t mentioning the fact that EU directives now mean around 3% of our fuel (I can’t remember the exact figure off-hand) has to contain bio-fuel thus pushing up food prices more.

c) …or that the EU CAP means farmers are paid not to grow food and are fined if they produce too much.

d) …or that the UK’s transport costs are so high they result in higher food prices – food has to be transported somehow, and despite the truckers clearly saying enough is enough – is Brown listening, is he hell!

e) …and is the fact I didn’t eat that last slice from my pizza last night going to make that much difference – it’s been made anyway.

Oh truly, I despair at this Government.

Will the next stage be ration cards? How Brown would love that; just think of all the bureaucrats he could employ and how much more control he would have over everyone.

"How about a grown up debate on food waste and and the global problems surrounding supply? It seems a shame that the anti GB bloggers cant scratch enough brain cells together to have a proper debate!"

Tips on fridge management do not make a basis of a debate on th dynamics of global supply and demand of and for food.

If he were to be using the event to push forward ideas for tariff reform on food and agriculture, that might have been a basis for a debate.

What we got were trite trueisms, not even useful for day time TV.

Much as it pains me to do so, I am in a relative degree of agreements with Brown on this one. Doesn't excuse his mistakes or make his economic record any more laudable, mind...

I suggested eslewhere on Nick Robinson's Newslog there was more we could all do to save money and avoid waste, so I was rather pleased to hear the PM was on the same wavelength. It is cheaper for a family to eat together and saves on fuel to prepare and cook food for half a dozen than one or two. My favourite recipes for leftovers are soup, fried potato and bubble and squeak, although I will probably try out Nick's cullinary tips now.

Re #23 metalwork:

"It seems a shame that the anti GB bloggers cant scratch enough brain cells together to have a proper debate!"

How can anyone take seriously the words on waste of a man who:

1. Last Thursday, could have made a real difference to the wasteful practices of the House of Cards with a few well-chosen words but instead gave a poor impersonation of Pontius Pilate?
...and...
2. Could have set an example to us all and the G8 leaders by attending this bunfight by videoconference at a cost to us taxpayers and the planet of nothing but instead cannot get his minions to organise a charter flight effectively?

It seems a shame that NuLabour sycophants can't see what a mess they and GB are making of almost everything thing touch: Midas in reverse.

PS: If we didn't laugh, we'd have to cry.

Sure it's cynical but then what do you expect from politicians? And the issue is well worth raising nonetheless. I suspect Gordon has been very effectively lobbied by the team behind the lovefoodhatewaste website where you'll find many useful tips on using leftovers and avoiding waste. As you will, hopefully, on my regular blog The Frugal Cook.

It does have to be said, that a good comedy writer wouldn't dare put forward a script like this, because it'd be seen as too ludicrous and unbelievable.

Or is that the plan?, Gordon is so fed up with satyrical comedians taking the micky out of him he's decided to flood the market with his own stupidity to try and drive them out of business ...Gordon, I see your cunning plan!

Gordon is totally realiable in my eyes, no other politician I have ever seen can so regularly shoot himself in the foot on the national and global stage as Gordon Brown.

Re #25 badgercourage:

How true.

Re #32 from ghanimah:
In a perverse way I?m quite enjoying Comrade Brown?s daily sermons on how we should live our lives.

Agreed. You really do have to laugh or cry.

Thanks again Gordon, it's a pity YOU'VE put the economy in this state. Why don't you stop telling people how to live their lives. You seem to think that were all thickos who can string a scentence together,and you keep tying us into more red tape. I can't wait until your gone. You're fast becoming a dictator,and your about as popular as syphalis. So much for Labour. The peoples party.HAH!

And we thought that he didn't have a sense of humour!!

What airline did he use?
Jet away with MacCavity Airways.

Re #33 jaydkay:

Please stop handing them bright ideas.

My Personal top 10 tips.

1. Buy all the BOGOF's you can before Gordon and Hazel Ban them and freeze them before they manage to hit your wallet any harder than they already do, because their figures on waste are probably five years old and not reflective of the post Gordon Brown appocalypse end of the world tour to destruction of an economy.

2. Use Freecycle where possible to redistribute unwanted or uneeded items, you'll find millions of people already using such facility without the interference of Gordon Brown who to many of us seems about ten years behind.

3. Don't drive unless you have to, in cities use a bus, in rural areas plan your journeys to get more done in one trip and cut down before Gordon gets rid of all our Post Offices and surgeries.

4. Let your teeth rot, because there are no dentists, so you can save a pound here and there on tooth paste. (not really, look after your teeth, because there's no one to fix them)

5. Buy a bicycle for your inlaws, with any luck they'll be run over by a foreign lorry driver who can afford diesel and doesn't pay speeding fines and save the national health service money in the long run.

6. Grow your own vegetables, I took it up five or so years ago and currently I have a row of cabages I call the cabinet fronted by a rather lame looking lettuce called Gordon.

7. Buy energy saving light bulbs and dream about the day that the council won't refuse you planning permission to mount a small wind turbine or a homemade solar water heater on your house because 'it not suitable for the enviroment'.

8. Improve your household fuel bills, request that Gordon Brown comes round your house once a week so he can fill it with hot air.

9. Bath with a friend.

and

10. Write down all of your personal details, Name, Address, Bank Account, Passport and post them on the internet so that the criminals can get hold of them easily so that we can save this goverment money on Identity cards, because lets be honest about it, the criminals are going to get the information anyway and it'd save Hazel Blears from having to cough up for new laptops too often.

Re #39 Old_Rocker:

Perhaps his retirement plan is to go on stand-up gigs. If he could find the right straght man he might make National TV.

Sometimes I sense Gordon Brown borders on the founding principles of communism -

'Don't do as I do, do as I say'.......

'Everyone is equal, it's just some of us are more equal than others'.......

Until Gordon convinces me otherwise, he reminds me of a chicken desperately flapping it's wings in a hopeless attemppt to get of the ground and fly into it's roost. Are the rest of the G8 leaders in Japan aware of the utter contempt with which the UK 'leader' is held back home?

Sorry, but I just can't see it.....I am quite sure that what Gordon wants to throw away of his unwanted food, Gordon throws away.....and I'm sure it amounts to much more than most of us. While he and his cronies continue to sit on their ridiculous benefits and MP subsidies, what right do they have to tell us about easing world poverty.......to use a good old Scottish expression - "You're a two-faced git Gordon".

Before you start nagging us to eat our leftovers, don't forget the 1.6 million tonnes of food (retail value £18 billion), dumped every year by supermarkets.

https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/yorkslincs/series7/supermarket_landfills.shtml

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/supermarket-waste-hits-new-high-780513.html

#23

why don't you start the 'grown up debate' about foodstuffs?

Let's start with some NewLabour targets for reducing household food consumption. Let's say each household will recieve a tax credit if it reduces its household food consumption by 10%. Let's suggest if they cut by another 10% they get preferred status on NHS waiting lists. If they can reduce by 30% they get free travel on public transport.

As a result of the law of unintended consequences of NewLabour targets in its first year of operation 5000 households are found to be selling their food tax credits for cash to the overweight. 10000 people have been admitted to hospital suffering anaemia due to iron deficiencies costing the NHS and additional £3bn a year and an additional 2000 have fainted waiting for their free travel to arrive and fallen under a train.

Targets, targets, targets. How many tractors have been built this year, GOrdon?

Brown's government have allowed unlimited immigration, both authorised and unauthorised, plus built on farm land and intend to build 3 miilion more homes to satsfify this immigration influx. This means less land in Britain to grow the food needed for more people. This causes imports of food, food-miles, pollution, etc.. And now he has woken up to the need to conserve. He has taken a leading part in Britain having to increase pollution in order to feed an uneccesarily larger population. Either just plain stupidity or planned but incompetant foresight.

1 the real truth , Parliament didn't.

I hear that next week Gordon is planning a new initiative.............

At the moment the country wastes £40m a year throwing away the last tiny remnants of a bar of soap. The caretaker-PM is due tell us that we can save money if we collect together the tiny slivers of well used bars of soap and press them together making a bigger bar of soap.

I love this brave new world that Labour is creating:

- My bin gets emptied fortnightly and examined.

- At last positive discrimination of white men in the workplace is to be introduced. (finally!)

- There are more nurses to look after me should I catch MRSA whilst in hospital.

- We'll soon have ID cards to stop us getting blown up on trains.

- The minimum wage makes it impossible for bosses to pay me low wages cash in hand anymore.

- Those clever green taxes have forced me out of the car and onto my push bike. I'm really doing my bit for the planet now.

- All my friends have got great jobs in Quangos. Writing reports on what schools should be doing is such rewarding work.

- Our taxes would have been even higher, but luckily Gordon sold off a load of gold that was just sat in some bank vault doing nothing.

Gordon seems to alternate between opening his mouth and putting his foot in it and shooting himself in the foot.

In the interests of efficiency savings, he should combine to two processes. Not only would the energy consumption be halved but he would only have to do it once.

I have lot of respect for Nick Ferrari who hosts a morning show on LBC Radio 97.3
This was his reaction to the latest suggestion from our P.M.:
"and this is the man we are entrusting to manage our interests in Iraq. Oh dear dear dear dear dear dear dear .....................!
Says it all really!

The biggest wasters of resources are this Government - I would suggest that their campaign actually starts in their "home" and that they leave us, the ever harder pressed, over-burdened, over-legislated, over-taxed public to get on with our lives without any further of their nannying interference.

I like the neo-Marie Antoinette style of the government. First it was "Don't let them eat cake...cos' they'll get fat". Now it's "Don't let them buy the cake...cos' they'll just let it go stale".

So let me get this straight. The government backs biofuels because Bush wants it. There are many voices raising concerns about more of the Amazon being ripped down and impacts on food prices. There is duly a biofuels impact on food prices and some people starve.

Now the public should be less wasteful?

This man is totally and utterly out of touch.

"Thus, he wants the G8 to help Africa to double her food production. "
Great idea! Restoring order to Zimbabwe, formerly "the bread basket of Africa" would be a good place to start.

We definitely need to pull Gordonbennet up on this one. Giving us advice on what not to throw away??? Cheeky, given all that 'good stuff' he's thrown away lately. I mean, he's thrown away his chances of winning the next election. He's thrown away whatever trust the public had in our political class. He's thrown away the possibility that New Labour will actually produce any decent non-intrusive policies before the next election etc etc.

When Gordon starts getting value for money on public spending then I'll start listening to him.

Re #53 from jonathan_cook:

It's the discrimination against men in white coats that bothers me.

Who's blocking their essential visit to No.10?

14 nosida, I absolutely agree with you . these doughnuts on this blog sit and wait for every new blog that comes out purely so that they can make some excuse to rubbish Gordon Brown even if they agreed with him they wouldn't say so, they vent there spite ,then when a little bit of commen sense and debate comes in they disappear back to whatever place they come from then await the next blog. Sick'oes

Personally I think binge drinking is the answer to our food waste problem.

Think about it. loads of food that is bought is wasted, but how many cans of beer are thrown away without being opened (even if past the sell-by date), I reckon only about 0000.7 %, so don't buy food buy beer instead, problem solved.

Also it has the added bonus, after consuming a couple of cans, of forgetting how bad Gordon Clown is at being PM.

re: 29

"I think that we all should have web-cams in out fridges connected through to the Ministry of Food Waste run by a cabinet minister.
I propose Hazel Blears as the best candidate."

Don't give them any ideas!!

#14 NOSIDA and #23 metalwork: There are flashes of sense such as yours on here, but I'm afraid that the majority simply see a new topic and post the same knee-jerk responses they have used numerous times before.

I think I saw figures a few weeks ago showing that we in the UK throw away 40% of the food we buy. That's a lot more than I put in the bin, but I know that I should do better and I don't mind the PM reminding me of the fact.

How much have all the stealth taxes this government has imposed on us all cost us per week? My bet is substantially more than £8. Go GB now you and your muppets have really lost the plot.

Yes fuel costs are high but that is because of high oil prices. Maybe giving the truckers a break would be a good thing but to be honest as the range seems to be 7 to 15% with an average (mean or median I don't know) of household income spent on food I think at least in this country that is the least of our worries. As soon as it reaches a maximum of 20-25% then I think we should complain. Of course we could stop being so materialistic (myself included) and stop spending our money on more frivolous items but then there really wouldn't anything to moan about then. As Private Eye pointed out it's public transport costs that have truly rocketed in the last 10 years not actual fuel costs duty (consider that many trains do still run on diesel). A return trip between Aberdeen and Edinburgh without any pre-purchase is now close to £70. A 40L tank of petrol costs just over half that (what about £43). Rising food costs doesn't affect us as much as other countries. Trying to limit our own waste might just delay the impact here.

26 potkettle,23 has in his small posting more common sense than anything that you have written on this blog. Do you think for one moment that we all wait with bated breath to hear your constant diatribe.

Food used to have something called 'preservatives' in it. It also used to be enclosed in something called 'packaging.'

Some bright spark decided for us that this was bad.

Now the food goes rotten in days and gets thrown away.

Any connection here?

Soddball - whilst we might be in a poor economic state people die in Africa because they don't have enough food. Not quite the same. The fact we live in relative luxury whilst famines occur 5/6 hours flight away is morally repugnant and I am as guilty as anyone not doing enough about this.

That aside the comments by the PM are a PR disaster and smack of fiddling whilst Rome is burning. Who ever advises him should find the nearest exit.

63 Grandantidote:

Surely you can't be arguing that we throw away all the these perfectly good 'doughnuts'.

Politician talking common sense hands out sound advice. What a nerve.

#46

"6. Grow your own vegetables"

They're called "The Cabinet"

(an old joke, I know, but in the light of the performances of Blears, Jaqui Smith, Des Browne, BuffHoon et al. I can't resist).

Doughnuts of the world unite!

Leave Gordon alone....He's just doing what he knows best...........BLAMING SOMEBODY ELSE!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Before Gordon Brown introduces the "bin police" to monitor wasteful habits in the kitchen, perhaps he should look to his own Governments fondness for waste when it comes to our taxes.

You moaning old malcontented, die hard, Tories.



You wanted him to LISTEN to you about all the waste and inefficiency.

Well he has…………. and hes decided that you all need to look in the fridge.

Its been right under your noses all along.

The down turn is over Yipppeeeeeeee

23. metalwork

Food is cheap, 8 quid a week is not worth a thought.

Can we have a debate about the hundreds of billions of our money the he wastes.

I think that might be a lot more productive.

31Soddball your remarks are faily typical of the poorly thought out nonsense that is poured out daily on these blogs, utter utter nonsense , when are some of you going to put your brain into gear before putting your two pennyworth on here, if you write something sensible we can treat you with respect but come on all this Stalin nonsense.
You say that he wants to give more money to Africa where for an example quoted only yesterday five thousand women die in child birth every year that beside all the other deplorable statistics, have you not heard,
"that I used to complain that I had no shoes until I met a man that had no feet".
Any body that supports the abject poverty in Africa has my respect and there isn't a politician in the world that has done more than Gordon Brown and his wife but does that ever get a mention.

One thing I'd like to know is: where do these stats on food waste come from? We're all bandying them about, but, does anyone have any idea who produces these figures? Is there a group of government civil servants sorting through my, and your, bin at this very moment? Be afraid, be very afraid, because my bin is laden with excess stuff. Is your Bin Laden? Is it the Bin Ladens that are responsible for this food problem? I feel a conspiracy theory comming on.

I've just watched the daily politics and they had one of these celebrity chefs on there agreeing with Gordon Brown.

Are these celebrity chefs who're charging fifty pounds a head for a bowl of scampi and chips and a bottle of cheap plonk under some kind of illusion that they have any idea of what a household budget is?

I know on Can't Cook, Won't Cook, they have a small budget for the ingredients, but thats before they put about thirty quids worth of stock ingrediants in to make it taste nice, olive oil, fresh herbs butter etc etc.

Perhaps they need to rename the show to Don't have a clue, Won't get a clue.

SAVE MONEY, EAT AN OVERWEIGHT CHEF!

Nick...as ever you are showing your supremely neutral views on GB...

"He is trying to demonstrate how people themselves as well as his government and the G8 can help us all to live with rising food prices. His aim is to demonstrate that he is helping top create a global plan to deal with one of the public's top concerns.

To cut prices, the prime minister wants to increase the supply of food and to decrease demand for it."

Well..how about reducing fuel tax as a starter?

Perhaps the public would have a little more confidence in the man if he actually started to do anything about the massive increase in the cost of living ,that he has presided over,instead of lecturing them like a demented headmaster!

And ...perhaps you could advise him to hire advisors who can see political own goals before they require him to make a public fool of himself...again!

Or,is that the Grand Plan?

Bah, I took Gordons advice on selling Gold right at the bottom of the market, I'm not falling for it again!

Reading the comments to date, I don't think anyone doubts that it is a good idea not to be wasteful - in fact it's very good sense at any time. I certainly agree.

However I do not agree that our being more careful does anything to change the high price of food! If it costs more, it costs more. We might be able to make it go a bit further but some may not be able to afford it in the first place.

And the timing stinks too. Has Gordon ever said this in the past few years? No. So instead of tackling high prices by looking at things like tax on fuel or actually getting fuel prices down from producers, he tells us to be more careful with the ever increasingly expensive food.

Stop blaming others and start taking control PM.

with regards to what gordy says about having to cut back on waste food,iv just read that whilst our leaders are at the g8 summit,no fewer than 60 (yes,60!) chefs have been flown in to fill our leaders bellies with copious amounts of top nosh!
i wonder how much will go in the bin?
unless,of course, they hand out doggie bags to our great one`s, and they can drop them over the poorer folk as they fly home!

The underlying message 'we should not waste food' is sound enough.

The real problem is the political mouth it is emanating from.

As the first post (#1) on this subject points out, by awarding themselves gross expenses and allowances, these politicians have totally undercut their moral right to pontificate on subjects like this.

Now hear this Gordon Brown and other politicians ... we the English people have mostly stopped listening to you and your ilk!

Who does this man think he is. I was born just post war and brought up not to waste food. I live on a meagre pension, pay all my bills and have very little left for food to eat let alone to waste!!
Please can we have a general election and give someone else a chance to berate us for our wild spending!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

66. jimbrant

If that 40% figure is anywhere near true, then it can hardly be wasted in the homes.
For an average of 40% to be true some must be wasting 60-80%.

So addressing the public is pointless.

You have to accept some waste is an inevitable part of feeding a family, you can not buy the right quantity as you can not accurately predict demand, how hungry children will be or who will be eating at each meal.

The waste is much more likely to be on the production and transport side and as a result of government policy, subsidy and the CAP.

The reason for the chorus of howls and derision is a result of the hypocrisy of a man who has squandered hundreds of billions of our money telling us to look at our food shopping habits for any sort of a solution.

I for one would hope that he may have had a better idea than that.

@69
Aha Granantidote has awoken for the day.

I would willingly engage in a debate if any point had been raised. The fact that 23 just slated people for not debating is not in itself a point to debate.
You also have not raised any point of debate, you just state you dont like my diatribe, but that is obvious to all on the blog before you type it because my point of veiw isn't your point of veiw.

So lets have your points and i will debate them one by one.

Or perhaps you would like me to start.

Reducing The ammount of food this country wastes will not directly influence food prices to the extent that they will return to pre 1997 levels

I'm a little irritated at all the negative responses to what is a genuine issue.

Unlike many kneejerk reactionaries I belive that supermarkets have done a lot to benefit us, however one area where they have created an issue is with the amount of food you have to buy to shop there.

I live alone and it's no surprise to me at all that £8 a week of food is thrown out - it is very, very difficult to shop for one unless you are prepared to eat an endless supply of ready meals.

I spend almost as much on food now as I used to when I was half of a couple and I'm very aware and very annoyed by the amount of it that I have to throw away.

To be lectured on waste by Gordon Brown, how ironic?

Will he be offering to restore value to my pension fund next?

Don't throw away leftover wine - just use it to fuel your Aston Martin.

@Grandantidote.

You havent contributed a thing to this blog.
You have done nothing but slate the writings of bloggers that you dont like.

We do still have free speech in this country So lay off other bloggers and make some valid points otherwise you are increasing your carbon footprint powering your PC/Laptop for nothing!

Here's a new idea for Nulabour.
Crematoriums add a huge amount of greenhouse gases.
If instead we used this:
https://www.thisiseco.co.uk/invessel_overview.asp

nulabour councils could compost your nearest and dearest then you could put them back on the garden.
Don't burn it compost it.

27 Waldof, come on now waldorf you might be the epitome of frugality but that doesn't mean that everybody is, and its far from being obvious to everyone, we all ,maybe not you, waste a tremendous amount of food and other things like clothing and with women look at the money they waste on shoes that they can barely walk in, that cost enough to buy twenty pairs of shoes for children in deprived countries that have never had a pair of shoes.
There is nothing wrong in reminding us of the money that we waste that could be spent more wisely.
The waste in supermarkets is appalling just imagine how much food is thrown out when it reaches its sell by date and rightly so but they shouldn't have put so much up in the first place.
When I was a child my Dad would send me across to the greengrocer for a bag of damaged fruit I used to take it home we would cut out the bad or damaged bits and we kids would have a feast, my Mum would buy damaged tomatoes and fry them, there were lots of things that we used to do that people these days think is below them but there is nothing wrong with GB or anyone else giving us a reality check there is to much waste and we should treat our food with more respect. please dont bring up the vote on expenses I made my views quite clear on that on"heroes to zeroes. Now I am off to have my cold chicken bubble and sqeak and home made pickle onions, and believe me I will enjoy the meal.

"You say that he wants to give more money to Africa where for an example quoted only yesterday five thousand women die in child birth every year that beside all the other deplorable statistics, have you not heard,
"that I used to complain that I had no shoes until I met a man that had no feet".
Any body that supports the abject poverty in Africa has my respect and there isn't a politician in the world that has done more than Gordon Brown and his wife but does that ever get a mention."

I am surprised that it is as low as only five thousand women who die in child birth in Africa, considering the lack of resources in most African villages I would have expected it to be quite a bit higher.

I also think that you need to rethink the last part of your comment - "Any body that supports the abject poverty in Africa has my respect" implies that you respect people who are in support of poverty in Africa. While this is possible (some people have an interest in keeping Africa in poverty) I expect you mean the opposite.

My personal feelings are that while it is commendable that Gordon Brown cares about Africa his first and most important consideration should be the state of the country he is charged with running.

If he wants to go about trying to save the world then he should do it on his own time and with his own money.

@81 - grandantidote

"Any body that supports the abject poverty in Africa has my respect"

On balance, I would tend to respect anybody to tries to do something about it rather than support it.

Even giving you the benefit of the doubt for a typo, I am with Pot_Kettle. Make a point and we will debate it.