It’s A Battle Of The Titans (Of Technology)!

Twitter owner Elon Musk has challenged jiu-jitsu-trained Mark Zuckerberg to a cage match.

Elon Musk, 51, offered up the match after commenting under a post about Mark Zuckerberg’s most recent suspected project, which will reportedly be called Threads and rival Twitter.

Elon Musk commented that he was sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options, and at least it would be sane, although he was worried there for a moment.

After another user reminded the Tesla CEO that the Facebook creator, 39, ‘does jiu-jitsu now’ Elon Musk brushed it off and said that he was up for a cage match if he was.

Mark Zuckerberg responded on his Instagram story, sharing a screenshot of Elon Musk’s challenge, writing: ‘Send me location’.

Elon Musk has trained in Kyokushin karate, taekwondo, judo and ‘Brazilian jiu-jitsu briefly throughout his life, he disclosed on Joe Rogan’s podcast, and he shared a picture of himself fighting a sumo wrestler in the past.

However, Elon Musk might not find the match to be as easy as he believes as the Meta CEO, who recently placed in a jiu-jitsu tournament in May.

Mark Zuckerberg said on a podcast earlier this year that maybe to some degree, your ability to keep doing interesting things is your willingness to be embarrassed again and go back to step one and start as a beginner, and get your arse kicked.

Earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg bashed a New York Times report that he was knocked out during a Jiu-Jitsu fight after a referee ended the bout early and gave the win to an opponent.

A clip of him wrestling on the floor and attempting to break free from an opponent who pinned him down on the mat went viral.

They struggled for more than a minute before Mark Zuckerberg was locked in a submission before the referee called the match and gave the win to his opponent, and the official said he stopped the fight because he heard the tech CEO snoring and thought he’d passed out during the chokehold.

However, Mark Zuckerberg and his coach Dave Camarillo told the publication he’d not lost consciousness and the referee misunderstood his grunting for snoring.

Mark Zuckerberg wrote in an email that it never happened.

Meta Chief Product Officer Chris Cox commented on the company’s upcoming text-based app, referring to it as their response to Twitter, the Verge reported earlier this month.

My money would be on Elon Musk winning, but then as Mike Tyson said: ‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth’.

This could even be the birth of a new sport – billionaire boy fights – pillows at 10 paces.

It would be like the rhinoceros versus the salamander, and they’re acting like bored rich kids with self-inflated egos.

Boys will be boys, but these two just have bigger and more expensive toys.

This is all very sad – don’t they both have more pressing matters to attend to? Perhaps they’re just trying to ‘mark’ their territory with ‘musk’.

It Is Imperative That The Government Releases Secret Files On The Royal Family

A few weeks ago, someone wrote in a newspaper outlet in the Royal section about the problems they’d had as a historian and biographer in trying to access historical royal records.

Time after time they found themselves barred from peeking into even the most mundane files, including documents which had been brought with public money specifically for the purpose of opening them to the public.

They’d been told that many royal files had been destroyed with no record kept. Others recorded in the catalogue then appeared to have been lost while some that were previously open had been mysteriously removed from the National Archives.

There appears to be a frustrating pattern to all of this.

And in the past few years, this has led this person to conclude that the Monarchy and our government are, together, permitting history to be falsified.

However, these problems are not uncommon, especially when it comes to matters relating to the discredited Duke of Windsor.

Barrister and former immigration Judge, Andrew Rose, the author of The Prince, the Princess and the Perfect Murder: An Untold History, wrote to say that an intriguing Special Branch file on the cover-up of a murder by an ex-girlfriend of the future Duke of Windsor had been closed without warning.

Andrew Rose, always looking to update his book, had already made vast notes from the file in question, MEPO 38/151 (HRH The Prince of Wales: Protection File: 1924-1935) in July 2011.

However, when he asked to see it more recently, he was told it wasn’t available.

He also heard from Professor Adrian O’Sullivan researching a book on Charles Bedaux, the millionaire industrialist and close friend of the Duke of Windsor.

Charles Bedaux was a person of significant interest who committed suicide in strange circumstances while in FBI custody.

As Professor O’Sullivan explains that he phoned the FBI and spoke to someone (anonymous) who assured him that they had lots of stuff on Charles Bedaux and encouraged him to submit a formal FOI request to them.

This he did promptly, and several months later during the autumn of 2009, received a response from the FBI advising him that his FOI application to the FBI for the release of the Charles Bedaux records had been rejected on the grounds that, after a search of the indices to their central records system at FBI Headquarters and all FBI field offices, the Bureau was unable to identify responsive main records. Which was essentially a long-winded way of saying they didn’t have anything, after all.

The United Kingdom seems to be in the grip of rewriting all its history to appease the minorities and this is no different.

History and accounts of it should all be there for all to see and it should be made public knowledge, the good, the bad and the ugly – we don’t just want all the exemplary bits so that we can clap to them.

Edward VIII, later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emporer of India until his abdication.

After his abdication, Edward married Wallis Simpson in France after her second divorce became absolute, and later that year, the couple toured Nazi Germany, which fed rumours that he was a Nazi supporter.

Their visit was against the advice of the British government and while there they both met Adolf Hitler – the visit was much publicised by the German media, and during visits to Germany Edward gave full Nazi salutes.

In Germany, they were regaled like royalty and members of the elite would bow and curtsy towards Wallis Simpson. She was treated with all the dignity and status the duke always wanted.

Britain’s Cuckoo Population Faces Uncertain Future

New research warns that climate change is endangering cuckoos as the iconic migratory birds’ body cycles can’t adjust to global warming. 

Scientists say that it could put them as out of fashion as the 18th-century mechanical time-keeping instruments.

Lead author Dr Chris Hewson, of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), said that many other species are thought to be able to bring forward their arrival by adjusting their internal clocks to leave their wintering grounds sooner, but this doesn’t appear to be an option for the UK Cuckoo population.

Spring is arriving earlier each year but cuckoos can’t shift their annual hike in response.

They travel the Sahara after the arrival of West African spring rains, which have remained constant.

It means they reach European breeding grounds out of sync with the peak availability of hairy caterpillars, their favourite snack.

Dr Hewson said that migrating birds are, in general, arriving back to their breeding grounds earlier to adjust to the changing climate. Some, however, are not and their population trends are less favourable than those that do.

He said that using data from 87 satellite-tracked common cuckoos from the United Kingdom, they found the spring arrival of one such species was constrained by seasonal changes in conditions at a stopover site in West Africa.

He added that they also found evidence attempting to keep up with the demands of earlier springs at the breeding grounds results in costly trade-offs, increasing the mortality rate in early migrating birds.

The phenomenon may have implications for the survival of the globally endangered bird. Most species that breed in Europe, but spend the winter in sub-Saharan Africa have made the necessary adjustments.

Prior research has established a connection between migratory birds with fixed arrival dates and more severe population declines.

Now, Dr Hewson and colleagues have used data from the long-running BTO Cuckoo tracking programme to demonstrate why cuckoos are so vulnerable.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, also shows the possible impact on the struggling UK population.

Cuckoos migrating to the UK leave their wintering grounds in the rainforests of central Africa in late February.

They spend a month or so fattening up in West Africa ahead of their difficult non-stop Sahara crossing.

Data collected on 87 Cuckoos tagged since 2011 show the birds must wait for the explosion in invertebrate prey brought each year by monsoons.

The Cuckoo is presently Red Listed as a Bird of Conservation Concern in the United Kingdom, due to its population decline.

Since 2011 they’ve been satellite-tracking Cuckoos to discover why they’re declining.

Common cuckoos spend their winters in Africa and migrate to the United Kingdom in the spring to breed, normally arriving in late April and early May, but the familiar birds have become much scarcer in recent decades.

To better understand why cuckoo populations were declining the BTO launched the Cuckoo Tracking Project in 2011 to tag and observe the birds during their intercontinental migration.

The team put a satellite marker as part of the tracking project. Since then, they’ve observed the cuckoo’s travels over the Sahara desert and the Ivory Coast of Africa, through France and Spain, and eventually back to Suffolk, England, where the cuckoo was first discovered.

Now, as of April 23, it’s the first bird in the Cuckoo Tracking Project to complete five migrations back to his English breeding ground.

In the past five years, it’s crossed the Sahara 10 times, soared through Africa’s Atlas Mountains and navigated Europe’s Pyrenees.

In Just Three Days, More Than 1,000 Migrants Cross The Channel

More than a thousand migrants have travelled the Channel in three days, official figures revealed, showering enormous stress on Rishi Sunak’s vow to end the arrival of small boats.

The Home Office said that some 333 people were detected crossing the English Channel in small boats on Sunday.

There were 374 people seen on Saturday and 486 on Friday, meaning 1,193 people have been seen in three days.

The crossings have been aided by favourable weather and calm winds in the Channel, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

The total number of small boat arrivals so far this year remains below the equivalent number at this point last year, but they’re getting closer.

More than 11,600 people had made the crossing by June 18, 2022, while the figure for 2023 so far is 10,472.

Crossings have picked up in recent days after a quiet period earlier in the month, with 2,862 people said to have arrived between June 10 and 18.

Seven boats were seen on Sunday, which suggests an average of about 48 people travelled the Channel per boat.

Total crossings last year were 45,755.

Dover Town councillor Rebecca Sawbridge said there were mixed responses in the Kent port town to the new arrival of migrants by small boats, but that Dover has always been a transient and multicultural town because of the docks.

The former seafarer said some residents have raised concerns about services, housing and poverty in relation to migrants arriving on the shoreline.

But on the increase of people arriving over the last few years, Ms Sawbridge said that she didn’t think more people had noticed it but there’s definitely been more attention and publicity around it.

She added that unless you live next to a hostel that houses migrants, you wouldn’t have that face-to-face contact.

One Dover resident, who wished not to be named, told the PA news agency that she’s sometimes seen boats arriving while walking her dog and reported it to the coastguard who arrive too late.

The woman said that she was fed up with it, particularly on how she felt it was straining public services supporting new arrivals and wanted the Government to do more to tackle the small boat crossings, and she added that it was a really tricky one, and that not all of those coming across the channel were genuine asylum seekers, but that some were, and that they could go through the appropriate channels.

Seems like the United Kingdom is a free for all, well until welfare, education and the health system break down, but saying that, aren’t we already broken as a country?

If our Government actually wanted to stop the migrants from crossing over the channel into the United Kingdom, don’t you think that they would? But it seems that not one political party has any intention of stopping this – not one.

The Conservatives said that they would control our borders, guess what, we were conned! And this is just unbelievable incompetence by our Government on a monumental scale.

Rishi Sunak keeps banging on about his pledges but now he’s become a broken record, and it doesn’t affect billionaires like Rishi Sunak, it affects the honest hardworking of this country, and it appears that Rishi Sunak is a do-nothing man.

And really, what was the point of Brexit? They said that they would secure and control our borders, again we were conned.

Rishi Sunak is completely clueless and he clearly wants to lose the next election, and why is our Government not even trying to be credible, let alone competent?

The Met Police Are Considering New Partygate Footage

The Metropolitan Police said they were considering newly released video footage showing Conservative Party staff partying, dancing and drinking during the lockdown.

The force said it was aware of the video, which shows a Christmas party involving at least 24 revellers at the party’s campaign headquarters in London in December 2020, when social distancing restrictions were in place.

Michael Gove tore into those at the rowdy party organised by the campaign team of the then London Mayor hopeful Shaun Bailey, branding it terrible and their actions inexcusable.

Two dancing officials were shown twirling each other signs saying to keep their distance and stumbling into a table filled with buffet food, and as they do so, other Tory staff members are heard chortling, with one joking that he hoped that they weren’t exposed for bending the rules.

Talking to Sophy Ridge, a frenzied Michael Gove said he hope that all those filmed were contrite, adding that it was terrible and that it was completely out of order, and that he wanted to apologise to everyone who, looking at that image would now think that people were flouting the rules put in place to protect everyone, and he said that the fact that this party went ahead was indefensible for the people who were there.

The Metropolitan Police had previously investigated the event, which took place on December 14, 2020, but only had a still photo of the revellers, and Michael Gove refused to tell the force if it should reopen its investigation.

He said Mr Bailey and Ben Mallett should keep the honours they were awarded in Boris Johnson’s resignation list.

Officers will now assess the new video, raising the possibility that the Conservatives could face yet another highly damaging police partygate investigation.

The video, acquired by a newspaper outlet, is the first time footage has emerged of a rule-breaking party in Westminster.

It shows a karaoke machine with flashing lights, as revellers quip about how they’re breaking the rules.

One man, sporting a brightly coloured Christmas jumper, is seen ballroom dancing with a woman attired in a red dress.

The unsteady pair bump into a table loaded with party food and wine glasses as they spiral around to the sound of The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York.

When one man sees he’s being recorded, he says: ‘Oh Christ’. Then another asks: ‘Are you filming this?’ Someone else responds: ‘Er, it’s for the party use’.

The entire thing was a joke, and I’m sure there will be plenty of people that will never vote Conservative again, and no government or political party has ever sickened me more, and if this demonstrates anything, it shows undoubtedly the contempt that the Conservative Party has for the electorate, deliberately doing this sort of thing, knowing the situation people were encountering at the time.

It was a shameful act whilst everyone else was locked down, but unfortunately, numerous people fell for the scaremongering by the Government.

However, it was incredibly heartbreaking that people lost loved ones during the lockdown, and what’s sad is that our government were laughing at us all – those people that say they’re running our country. The only thing that they’re running is a p*ss up in a brewery! But of course, this is yet another example of our self-entitled establishment believing they’re above the law, but what they really are is narcissistic, smug oppressors!

The honours list should be repealed because they’re certainly not honourable.

But there were breaches by many. Some went on holiday when they were told not to, and numerous people never got vaccinated.

The Conservatives should do the right thing – call an election and then we can put a line under all this nonsense, which has been unprofessional and extremely insulting.

Labour-Run Council Splashes Out Nearly £50,000 On LGBT-Friendly Rainbow Junction, Sparking Fury

It’s emerged that a ‘rainbow junction’ in support of the LGBT community cost taxpayers almost £50,000.

The four crossings, painted in the coloured stripes of the Progressive Pride flag was rolled out in Chiswick High Road in February by the Labour-run Hounslow council.

According to a newspaper outlet, disability campaigners were left furious when it was revealed to be the most expensive rainbow crossing in Britain, at the cost of £48,174.

The National Federation of the Blind of the UK said ‘inclusion must mean inclusion for all, including blind people’ and instead the money could instead have been spent on safety and accessibility for the visually impaired.

Meanwhile, Tory peer Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne suggested the crossing would inevitably cause migraines and trigger epilepsy.

The scheme was developed alongside the West London Queer Project, which aims to ‘connect, support and give voice to’ the LGBT community in the area.

The newspaper outlet found that over the course of a year, the crossing itself cost more than £34,000, while the town hall also splurged £9,000 on road markings and resurfacing, £1,900 on traffic management and £4,500 on road safety audits.

By comparison, £46,000 was the combined cost of developing rainbow crosses on hospital grounds by 20 NHS trusts in 2019.

Hounslow, which supports Sadiq Khan’s Ulez expansion and recently increased council tax by the maximum amount of 4.99 per cent rejected the suggestion that it was a poor allocation of resources.

Council leader Shantanu Rajawat told the paper that important day-to-day services were not affected by new community endeavours like this.

He said that due to their prudent financial management over many years, Hounslow was in a relatively strong position among local authorities and their balanced budget would ensure they would continue to deliver the quality of services and support residents expect and deserve.

It comes after a newspaper outlet announced last year that councils have spent more than £200,000 on woke pedestrian crossings.

MPs voiced their outrage at how taxpayer’s money has been wasted on the absurd pet projects while frontline services including bin collections have been cut.

The £200,000 outlay includes £43,000 splashed out by Kensington and Chelsea Council on three ‘creative crossings’, including a Japan-themed one, while Richmond Council in South West London spent £4,400 on a crossing featuring poppies.

Freedom of Information data shows that in total, 21 local authorities spent £205,084 on what are described as ‘pointless paint jobs’.

It all boils down to councils squandering taxpayers’ money just like the government does.

This is a waste of money, but then Labour are good at wasting money, but then we mustn’t forget that the Conservatives are excellent at tunnelling money to millionaires. It’s official, the world’s gone mad!

How many schoolchildren could have benefited from school meals? How many pensioners could have benefited from having money for food or heating? How many families could have benefited from additional food and garments for their children?

Of course, other funding has been affected and this was money redirected for unnecessary ego-boosting assignments and are no doubt probably not legal under road traffic management laws.

It’s now time for Council Tax rebellion because you’re not getting what you pay for, and it’s certainly not value for money.

These lines aren’t identified in the Highway Code, so how can this be legal? And worse still, not recognised by drivers, wait for the casualties to happen!

That amount of money would have filled a ton of potholes on the roads, but amazingly, the person that authorised this work likely believed they were doing a fabulous job, and in order to authorise this amount of expenditure they must be getting well-paid, what a waste!

The Mail Unveils Boris Johnson As Its New Columnist

It was the front page teaser that got the entirety of Britain talking.

Who could the erudite new columnist announce on the cover of Daily Mail perhaps be?

Of course, many guessed right and now they’re happy to confirm his identity, the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, famed as one of the funniest and most original writers in the industry.

Boris’s full-page column will appear in the Daily Mail every Saturday along with fellow star names Amanda Platell and Andrew Neil, and you’ll be able to get a sneak preview on MailOnline and The M+ on Friday evenings.

Whether you’re a Boris Johnson fan or not, it’s going to be required reading, both in Westminster and for millions across the globe.

Watch out for his brilliant debut landing at about 5 pm today. It’s absolutely unmissable and full of surprises because everything that Boris Johnson says is unbelievable.

I’m not particularly a fan of Boris Johnson but at least he’s making a living, although I’m sure his affinity to the newspaper industry benefited him a lot!

Of course, there would have been a lot of people who would have wanted to see him down the job centre, but that wasn’t going to happen, not even in our wildest dreams, and as long as he doesn’t misuse his position by passing on knowledge, that’s fine by me, as long he keeps being entertaining and jocular – we wouldn’t want him to lose his sense of humour now, would we?

The problem is, in Boris Johnson’s world nobody’s entitled to have opinions about him, but he can say what he likes about everyone else, and it looks like failure gets rewarded, and he’s now in the best possible position to mock and call out this government over its catastrophic policies and practices. Rishi Sunak must be feeling extremely nervous right now.

Let the fun begin because it’s never boring when Boris Johnson is about, and I for one can’t wait, and I believe that Boris Johnson will destroy Rishi Sunak and the Tory party out of spite for how they hung him out to dry, and I can’t wait for the fireworks to begin because he will be far more interesting than Prime Minister’s questions.

However, in the current world that we live in, this information didn’t make me flinch much, and Boris Johnson is an ex-MP who isn’t scared to tell it the way that it is.

Rishi Sunak and his parliamentary chums are done come election day and Boris Johnson can’t wait – it’s time to get your hard hat on Rishi.

Perhaps they can have Donald Trump as a guest writer as well?

Boris Johnson isn’t a bad journalist and writer, and of course, the global elite won’t let him back into politics, but then the pen is mightier than the sword as they say. Sword-wielding Boris, now that I could imagine, and I bet Rishi Sunak will be his most avid reader!

I shall definitely be looking forward to reading his opinions and enjoying his eloquent intellectual parched humour, and I expect dozens of scandals to be completely disclosed over the next few months.

Has The Woman Who Discovered Richard III Under A Car Park In Northampton Found ANOTHER King?

Finding one dead king under a car park may be deemed a fluke. Discovering two could be seen as a very peculiar habit.

Yet this may prove to be the case for historian Philippa Langley.

Through a combination of careful research and what she calls a strange sensation, in 2012 Philippa Langely famously identified the very location in a Leicester car park beneath which lay the skeleton of the 15th-century king Richard III.

Using the same critical combination of research and analysis that drew her to the final resting place of the last Plantagenet king, she’s convinced that Henry’s earthly remains lie under the grey tarmac of, what for it, a Ministry of Justice-owned car park at Reading Prison.

Somewhat fittingly, she believes he’s buried under a parking spot marked on a survey with the letter ‘K’.

It’s one reason the 60-year-old, whose dedication to finding Richard III’s grave earned her an MBE and led to her actions being portrayed in the 2022 film, The Lost King has formed the ‘Hidden Abbey’ project to help raise funds for the estimated £55,000 cost of a local dig at the site of the prison, which was closed in 2013 and is now awaiting redevelopment.

She told a newspaper outlet that there were powerful arguments for the location of the king’s grave and that it was, therefore, her contention that not only do they have another king in a car park in Reading, but that ‘K’ was for king.

It’s a bold assertion, but as we have seen, Philippa has impressive form, and after becoming intrigued with Richard III in the late 1990s, she spent years endeavouring to pinpoint his actual burial site and became convinced that the location lay within a council-owned car park in Leicester.

Initially unlikely as that seemed, the car park stood on the spot once occupied by the church of the Greyfriars, a 13th-century monastic friary, where Richard was buried following his death at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

Philippa’s conviction was strengthened when she visited the site in 2004, and when, standing over an area marked R, for Reserved Parking she found herself shaking and came out in goosebumps.

The documentary filming the discovery actually didn’t give Philippa Langley enough recognition, but I would guess that numerous others hopped in on her glory, but still, it’s remarkable how it was all pieced together by many, including Philippa Langley.

However, what should have happened after the find is that King Richard III should have been given a state funeral because, after all, he was still a king, and it makes you wonder how much of our history has been lost by the destruction on monasteries, archaic records, rolls and literature because it could tell us so much more about those times and before.

And it’s so invigorating to see and read about a smart, intelligent and well-educated woman such as Philippa Langley instead of the superabundance of rubbish that occupies most papers and news stories not worth reading about, and it was her obsession that got the dig underway in the first place, and at least there’s one person out there trying to preserve our history and culture.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Policy Platform Shows Cracks

With all eyes on Boris Johnson and the writhing convulsions within the Tory party, the huge cracks opening up in Labour’s policy platform are going virtually unnoticed.

Last week the main plank of its energy strategy collapsed, as Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves ditched the party’s promise to plough 28 billion a year into green projects.

She finally realised what every dog on the street already knew, that it would be ruinously expensive and the amount of borrowing involved could have caused a market meltdown.

So while it stays an aspiration which may or may not be achieved in the later part of a Labour-led parliament, it’s no longer a commitment.

Ms Reeves has done the right thing of course, but this U-turn leaves the party’s environmental policies even more embroiled in confusion than before.

They oppose expanding our own North Sea drilling, yet accept we’re going to need oil and gas for numerous years to come, leaving us at the mercy of despots like Vladimir Putin for our supplies.

Renewable may ultimately bridge the energy gap, but not in the foreseeable future. So, what is Labour’s plan to keep the lights on?

If it was left to the eco zealots of Just Stop Oil, the lights would be off already, not to mention the gas cookers and central heating.

Sir Keir Starmer claims to fight their misguided campaign to bring arterial roads and city centres to a halt.

So why did he whip his MPs yesterday to oppose new legislation to curtail these dangerous and often perilous protests? Could it have anything to do with the £1.5 million donated to the party by Just Stop Oil’s most well-known backer Dale Vince?

And it’s not just energy policy where Labour is at sixes and sevens. With the warm weather and calm seas, some 600 migrants crossed the Channel illegally yesterday, virtually all young men.

Sir Keir Starmer says he wants to end the influx of small boats, yet his party fiercely opposes any Tory plan to tackle the problem.

The Illegal Migration Bill, designed to detain and swiftly oust those who arrive unlawfully on our shores, is presently being held up in the Lords, largely by Labour peers.

Meanwhile, it remains a mystery where Sir Keir Starmer stands on the complex matter of whether a man can become a woman simply by saying that he is one.

Sir Keir Starmer is mainly seen in a red tie, does this mean he belongs to a satanic cult? Let’s face it, he’s largely bereft of humour, whereas Boris Johnson was a hilarious joker, whether it was on purpose or not.

These are oddballs that have absolutely no policies that support the majority and working people.

They don’t want to stop illegals from coming into our country. They don’t want to stop eco-warriors. They want to suppress free speech and our freedom of movement, along with stealth taxes through emission charges amongst other things. We must not deflect what the Conservatives have done in the last 13 years, although I certainly don’t think that Labour would do any better.

The Tories have done a terrible job, but we can’t blind ourselves to what a Labour government would be like, but look we have a country of millions, yet we end up with 650 ninnyhammers in the House of Commons, and it’s much easier to play the opposition than to be the one to lead.

There Is A Feeling Among Shoppers That Supermarket Giants Are Taking Advantage Of Them

Two in three shoppers feel ripped off because supermarket colossi are charging much higher prices in their small convenience stores.

The figures come from Which? amid new research demonstrating that trust in supermarkets has fallen to a nine-year low.

The supermarkets typically charge more for the same product sold through their smaller convenience stores, such as Tesco Express and Sainsbury’s Local, than in larger outlets.

At the same time, their small stores have fewer of the cheapest budget lines, which makes life difficult for those who don’t have a car or can’t travel to large stores.

Rishi Sunak has asked the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate whether there’s any proof of profiteering or greedflation on groceries.

Separately, the CMA has already signalled concerns that the big supermarkets have raised profit margins on diesel, which has put up prices across the economy.

A Which? survey discovered that 67 per cent of people believe supermarkets are charging rip-off prices in their convenience stores.

Three-quarters (75 per cent) also said they find the cost of convenience store foods too costly compared to bigger supermarkets and almost half (45 per cent) struggle to find affordable food in convenience stores.

Which? said that worryingly, half (51 per cent) of those who rely on convenience stores at least once a week were struggling financially with the cost of living crisis, compared to a third (35 per cent) of consumers overall. The survey found that 57 per cent said that having more budget ranges in the convenience outlets would help.

The consumer champion is calling on supermarkets to improve the availability of essential budget options in their convenience stores.

Separate research in the Which? monthly consumer insight tracker discovered that trust in the groceries industry fell in May to the lowest it’s been since November 2014.

The confidence score measures just +36 – on a scale of – 100 to +100 – which means a drop of 32 points since it peaked at +68 in May 2020.

The Which? director of policy and advocacy, Rocio Concha, said that the trust in the grocery industry had fallen to a nine-year low, with many consumers telling them they felt ripped off by high convenience store prices, and that people shouldn’t have to pay over the odds for everyday essentials just because they struggle to get to a large supermarket.

Rishi Sunak clearly doesn’t shop in the same supermarkets as we do, otherwise, he would have discovered that supermarkets have raised their prices, and in some cases as much as double.

In some Tesco Express, it’s £3.60 for a jar of beetroot.

This significantly impacts pensioners who don’t drive. Although many people buy online once a month, but use Tesco Express for necessities like milk, bread et cetera. Also, many of the special offers are aimed at families, so if you’re a pensioner or single you end up having to pay more money to shop.

Small convenience stores like Tesco Express basket spend per square foot which exceeds that of the supermarkets. They’re gold mines, hence why they’re closing supermarkets and opening more mini-stores.

Co-op is another mini supermarket that has been increasing their prices on anything and everything lately and they have become eye-wateringly expensive.

However, wherever you go it’s costly. We are being ripped off in the larger stores and extorted in the smaller ones, and they’re profiteering at the expense of the public.

Nevertheless, it is a convenience store and if you want something quick, then it’s convenient and you don’t mind spending a little extra, but you also don’t want to be ripped off.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started