A few days ago I settled myself in front of the telly with a cup of tea and a pile of paperwork. It was 5 o'clock and there was a children's news programme on TV.
The first item featured two children who were queuing outside a department store waiting to pay £270 for the latest games console to come on the market.
The next item featured another group of children but these kids have never seen a games console and the only thing they had to queue for is food, because the African Country where they live is plagued by drought, famine and an ongoing Civil War. One little girl was so under-nourished that her skin was flaking off.
I then proceeded with the job in hand, sorting out the paperwork and read a statement which had come with our latest milk cheque, this listed the amount of milk we have produced since the first of April and told us how much our milk quota will allow us to produce before the end of March 2000. If our cows make the cardinal sin of producing too much milk we will have to throw it away or risk having to pay a super levy to the EEC.
At this point I would like to thank the Editor of the Cornish Times for her reply to my letter which was published in last weeks paper (15/10/99) when she explained why the Cornish Times research team had chosen Anchor butter as a staple item in its research in the price war in supermarkets.
But I can't help thinking how ironic it is that here in the South West where there are so many dairy farms that the only brand of butter which is on sale in all the local supermarkets is one which was transported from the other side of the world. Yet thanks to man's inhumanity to man and the crazy political system throughout the world we cannot transport food that nobody wants to a continent where young people are dying of starvation.
MRS MARY WILLIAMS
Menheniot.