{"id":92938,"date":"2026-06-07T07:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T06:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=92938"},"modified":"2026-06-07T07:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T06:19:12","slug":"ministers-are-actively-turning-what-might-need-only-be-a-crisis-into-a-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/06\/07\/ministers-are-actively-turning-what-might-need-only-be-a-crisis-into-a-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Ministers are actively turning what might need only be a crisis into a disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Guardian reported<\/a> yesterday that:<\/p>\n

\n

Phil Pluck, the chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation (CCF), which represents businesses involved in supplying and transporting temperature-sensitive food and pharmaceuticals, said: \u201cThe potential for a major food crisis is as great now as it ever was. We are at the mercy of so many different factors now, which are becoming increasingly dangerous to food supply in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

They added:<\/p>\n

\n

Britain\u2019s food system has not been significantly tested since the second world war, a time when about half of the nation\u2019s cold stores were in public ownership, said Tom Southall, the deputy chief executive at the CCF. \u201cThis alludes to an element of complacency about how and where we store our food in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And then they noted:<\/p>\n

\n

Britain relies on overseas imports for more than a third of its food, most of it entering through four ports, making supplies particularly vulnerable to potential interruption.<\/p>\n

The CCF said international conflicts or hold-ups at the UK border could stop food flowing into the country, while fuel shortages or the failure of cold-storage sites because of flooding or extreme heat amid the\u00a0climate crisis\u00a0could cause gaps on supermarket shelves.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Let's be clear, all og this material obviously came from a rehashed press release from the Cold Chain Federation, but the sting was in the tail:<\/p>\n

\n

The continued closure of the strait of Hormuz has interrupted\u00a0global flows of fertiliser, necessary for half the world\u2019s food production, further raising fears over shortages.<\/p>\n

Many everyday grocery items, including meat, vegetables, fish, dairy products, bread, fruit and ready meals, rely on the cold chain, as well as medicines, vaccines and blood and plasma products.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, yes, this may be a trade association seeking publicity, but I think it is doing so advisedly.<\/p>\n

There is a crisis jeading our way.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s food system has not been significantly tested since the Second World War.<\/p>\n

And right now, as a crisis is unfolding in plain sight, ministers appear to be doing precisely nothing about it, and are instead obsessing about the Makerfield by-election. That may be important, but feeding the nation is very much more so, and they appear to be either unaware of that or are indifferent to it. As a result, they are actively turning what might need only be a crisis into what could be a disaster.<\/p>\n

Seen like that, Makerfield might turn into insignificance in national history as a result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Guardian reported yesterday that: Phil Pluck, the chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation (CCF), which represents businesses involved in supplying and transporting temperature-sensitive
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204,35,16,87,147,118,224,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economic-justice","category-economics","category-ethics","category-health","category-inequality","category-labour","category-neoliberalism","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92938"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92952,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92938\/revisions\/92952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}