So this is actually made in the UK. Why it's so frigging expensive. Whereas for less than the price of one stick of rhubarb, this is in Sainsbury's over the weekend, I could get a melon imported from South America. So it's more expensive to pick stuff locally than it is to have what you perceive as being more expensive stuff shipped around the world. So that is... That would be because we pay too much to people to pick locally. So how

does that fit? It's all more likely your productivity of your food manufacturing system. Although I compare what things are like in Amsterdam or in Holland, and it's a dam site cheaper here. Because they have a far more productive, semi-industrialised, but low pesticide, low fertilizer, a huge amount of sub-grown inside greenhouses. They're just more productive than you are with higher wages. Now what you would tell you in case of the melons, you've got much, much lower income standards than living standards for South Americans or why you paying such a low price for it. But it comes down to... Britain hasn't had to industrialise because it's paid such lousy wages.

It's reversed what it learned. So if you could have learned during the industrial revolution? Okay, so final point then. So if we increase minimum wage, as you say it takes time, I don't know what, two, five, ten years. How long it takes? If you increase minimum wage, people's spending increases, therefore consumption increases. So you are going to

support local industries presumably. Yeah, I

mean, like one of my favourite examples of wage rises, and people must be aware of this, I was very aware of it at the time, Singapore. Lee Kwan-Yoo, I think in 1978, all their abouts, announced that there was going to be, I think, a 27% or 34% increase in the wages. And any kind of company that can't survive, that is welcome to leave. And I remember your time was going to be horror, Singapore is going to collapse, etc. etc. and I said, no, it's going to drive out low wage manufacturing and become a high income, high wage society. It's a very unusual society. It's got enormous amount of on-tree port activity in its exports of almost larger than its GDP. It's probably possibly larger given over accounting of those things. But it's nobody calls Singapore a basket case. And it does a lot of things people think.

Well, this is what Boris was arguing for, though. You know, Singapore on Thames is like, when did you let it go? Oh, and you were on Boris. You didn't get that. But I mean, it sounds like all you got to do then, Boris, if you want Singapore on Thames, I mean, he's on the wrong wage. He's increased wages. Yeah, yeah. So maybe

Rishi could tell you something. I'd give it to your rich mates. Yeah.

All right, very good. Catch you again next week, Steve.

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