Supermarkets Squeeze the Long-Suffering Shopper !sx .sx by Steve Brady .sx FEWER AND FEWER , bigger and bigger supermarket chains are squeezing more and more out of the British shopper .sx While the giant store combines are among the most profitable in the World , British shoppers pay up to twice as much for basic necessities as their counterparts in other Western countries .sx .sx A recent study found that the real prices of basic foodstuffs , allowing for differences in purchasing power between countries , were almost twice as high in leading British supermarket Tesco's as in equivalent stores in Germany and America .sx The cost of British food has risen by one third since 1985 , compared with rises of 18% in France , 10% in Germany and 9% in Belgium , according to figures supplied by the Common Market Commission in Brussels .sx .sx These massively higher British food prices are the result of massively higher British supermarket profits .sx British supermarkets' profit margins are four times the European average and eight times that in the USA .sx These profits are squeezed out of the housewife's purse by staggering mark-ups extorted on food by the supermarkets .sx star On tomatoes , for example , British supermarkets charge an average of 66% more than they paid for them .sx American ones charge half that mark-up , 32% and Germans a twentieth , 3% .sx .sx star Bananas here are marked up 97% - you pay nearly twice what they cost the supermarket !sx - compared with 47% in the USA and 22% in Germany .sx .sx star Rump steak is marked up 73% here , but 61% in Germany and 26% in the US .sx star Frozen chips cost you 82% more than they cost the supermarket selling them , while a German pays 18% and an American just 9% more .sx .sx star Pork chops are marked up an incredible 156% by British supermarkets .sx German ones sell them at a 6% loss to attract custom .sx .sx Over a basket of ten basic items , mainly fresh meat , fruit and vegetables , the average mark-up in British supermarkets was 61% , compared with 42% in America and 22% in Germany .sx RIP-OFF Under the Capitalist 'free market' theory , now being foisted on the Russians , this sort of rip-off isn't supposed to happen , because 'consumers' simply shop around for lower prices .sx But under Capitalist reality they can't .sx They have less and less choice to shop around between .sx The Big Five supermarkets - Sainsbury , Tesco , Safeway , Asda and Gateway - now control 60% of sales by value in the pounds40 billion a year grocery market .sx That enables them to spend pounds20 million just to open one new store , buying up all the best sites and selling at a loss until they have bankrupted surrounding competition .sx Small family grocers are now closing at the rate of 30 a week !sx Leaving the housewife a 'choice' of five huge conglomerates , all extorting huge profits .sx The old family grocers , giving good quality at value-for-money process , are being systematically exterminated commercially by the Big Five .sx Then , as even Tory MP Ann Winterton admitted on August 17th , " My fear is they will get bigger and bigger , then amalgamate , and there will be less choice for the customer " .sx Consumers' Association policy director Stephen Locke , pointing out that " Food accounts for 20% of the average family budget " , demanded Government action .sx But Tories , Liberals and now even Labour are reluctant to " interfere with the market " .sx Especially when some of its biggest profiteers , like Lord Sainsbury , bankroll their parties .sx SQUEEZED But " the market " means that British shoppers , including the unemployed and poor with children to feed , have extortionate profits squeezed out of them for the food they and their children need to live , whilst extortioners and legalised thieves wax fat on bread stolen from British babies' mouths .sx The Sainsbury clan alone have squeezed the fourth biggest fortune in Britain out of their rip - off profits and supermarket monopoly .sx They are worth at least pounds1 .sx 8 billion .sx Some of which they have used to fund Liberal politicians .sx ( No wonder the Liberal Democrats have just announced their conversion to the 'free market' !sx ) .sx Monopoly , the ruin of traditional family grocers and the extortion of vastly higher food prices from the many to make immense fortunes for the few may be the establishment parties' idea of a 'free market' .sx But they aren't ours .sx We would break up the big supermarket chains , encourage small British family grocers and give our housewives and shoppers real choice and real value at a decent price .sx Tories sic !sx Dream Becomes a Nightmare .sx Home Owners Were Really Home Loaners !sx .sx HOME REPOSSESSIONS HAVE soared to record heights as slump , redundancy and extortionate interest rates combine to make a mockery of the Tory illusion of Britain becoming a 'home-owning democracy' .sx .sx Moneylenders - banks and building societies - repossessed a record 36,610 homes in the first half of this year , twice as many as last year , itself three times worse than 1989 .sx 280 families are driven from their homes by repossession orders ever working day .sx By the end of June , 53,000 repossessed homes were waiting to be sold .sx .sx There is worse to come , according to Mark Boleat , Director General of the Council of Mortgage Lenders .sx By the end of June , there were 162,210 mortgages behind in payments by between six months and a year , up 84% on last year .sx Despite the fact that many loans more than a year in arrears tend to be repossessed those that have not yet been were up 176% on June 1990 .sx More and more 'homeowners' are getting into trouble with their mortgages .sx Research commissioned by the Bank of England revealed that in March this year 269,780 loans were two months in arrears and 305,500 three months .sx A total of 784,000 families were behind with mortgage repayments - 8.3% of the total who have mortgages .sx The debt disaster is hitting hardest at the part of Britain least equipped by experience to bear it - the traditionally prosperous South-East .sx Annual repossession court orders have more than doubled in the South-East during the last five years , while the national total has only gone up by a third .sx The South-East now accounts for 42% of court orders .sx This is not surprising .sx The region has suffered an 82% rise in unemployment since 1989 .sx More than five times the rise in the North .sx While houses sic !sx prices have fallen by 15% in the South-East , compared with a 19% increase in the North .sx The fall in house prices means families who fall into mortgage arrears can't simply sell up to cover the arrears and move somewhere cheaper , as in the past .sx It take sic !sx months to find a buyer , while they sink deeper into debt .sx By then they are so far down the gullet of the loan sharks the price they get can't cover the outstanding debt , so they get repossessed anyway .sx The more so as the bank and building society sharks , unlike their victims can recoup any losses due to depressed house prices because their loans are insured .sx That often leads to them not giving their victims a chance to sell .sx They just slam in a repossession order to get them out .sx Then they sell cheap and quick and put in a loan insurance claim .sx In the process driving house prices further down , making things worse .sx No wonder Sheila McKechnie , director of the homeless charity Shelter warned recently " It is clear the worst is yet to come .sx The first half of this year sees more people in mortgage arrears than during the whole of last year .sx Unless action is taken now , 1991 looks set to be the year of unprecedented misery for home owners .sx " .sx At the height of the Thatcherite Fools' Paradise we warned that it was all an illusion .sx The vast number of new 'home owners' were actually 'home loaners' .sx They didn't own their own homes .sx The moneylenders - banks and building societies - did .sx All they owned was a big debt .sx A debt , moreover , whose interest rate was not agreed at the time of borrowing but could be hiked by the loan shark institution whenever it felt like it .sx An arrangement which rightly has been illegal throughout most of our country's history , and ought to be illegal now .sx An arrangement which meant that millions of families were hit when the Government deliberately raised interest rates through the roof .sx They did it to curb imports when what they should have done was bring in import controls ; and to lower inflation by raising unemployment , the rusty see-saw on which the British economy has been swinging from crisis to crisis for fifty years and more .sx Economic nationalism would cure balance of payments and inflation problems without throwing thousands of British families onto the streets .sx Fixed rate , low interest loans , with interest accrual and repayments suspended while the breadwinner was unemployed or unfit for work , possibly provided by a State Bank , would give British families a secure roof over their heads .sx FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO ENCOURAGE FAMILY LIFE !sx .sx By Steve Brady .sx ALL OVER EUROPE , the native White people are having fewer and fewer babies .sx The number of young people is going down .sx The number of elderly pensioners they must support is going up .sx The population is going down .sx Our nations , our race , is dying out .sx We Europeans are a dying breed .sx .sx A death speeded by those liberals and multi-racialists who use the falling native birth-rate to call for even more Coloured Immigration " to keep up the numbers of the work-force " .sx Let's look at the situation across out White European homeland .sx Remembering one vital statistic :sx each woman must , on average , have 2.1 children in her lifetime to keep the population constant .sx Any less , and the numbers will fall .sx Until , if nothing is done , the nation dies and the race becomes extinct , like the dodo or the dinosaur .sx .sx BRITAIN :sx Average birth rate :sx 1.8 children per woman .sx In 1960 it was 2.8. The number of third - born children has nearly halved , from 278,500 in 1960 to 140,400 in 1988 .sx Meanwhile Bengali immigrants have an average of 8.0 children per couple .sx By the mid-2060's Britons will be outnumbered by Coloureds in their own country .sx On 30th July the London Independent called for more Immigrants to be " attracted " to Britain to make up the falling native numbers .sx FRANCE :sx Average birth rate :sx 1.81 children per woman .sx In 1980 it was 1.95. In 1970 2.48. Millions of North African Immigrants have a burgeoning birth rate .sx On July 29th , the French State statistics and economic office , INSEE , revealing the latest fall in native birth rate , recommended that the workforce be kept up by 142,000 Immigrants a year between 2000 and 2009 , 148,000 a year in the following decade and 180,000 immigrants a year between 2020 and 2029 .sx That was on current French birth rates .sx But INSEE went on to point out that on current trends the birth rate would fall to 1.5 children per Frenchwoman , so it called for 315.000 Immigrants a year if so .sx GERMANY :sx Average birth rate :sx 1.4 children per woman .sx " It is a daunting prospect " said Hans-Peter Bosse of the national statistics office in Wiesbaden , " as a nation we are simply failing to reproduce ourselves .sx " According to Ulrich Mammey of the Federal Institute for Population Research , Coloured Immigrants in Germany , notably Turks , have bigger families .sx Currently 6.25% of the population , they will have almost doubled to 10% in the next nine years .sx " Obviouosly that is going to cause some concern " warned Herr Mammey .sx " But if Germans themselves are not reproducing in sufficient numbers we will have to get more people from somewhere .sx Perhaps we will even need an active Immigration policy " .sx ITALY :sx Average birth rate :sx 1.29 children per woman .sx The lowest in Europe .sx Large numbers of North African Immigrants with a high birthrate in the Country .sx SPAIN :sx Average birth rate :sx 1.3 children per woman .sx PORTUGAL :sx Average birth rate :sx 1.5 children per woman .sx GREECE :sx Average birth rate :sx 1.5 children per woman .sx IRISH REPUBLIC :sx Average birth rate :sx 2.1 children per woman .sx Population therefore holding its own , but the birthrate is steadily falling .sx Coloured Immigrants beginning to move into Dublin and other large cities .sx RUSSIA :sx Birth rate of Whites falling .sx Birth rate of Muslims in Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union is five time that of the Russians .sx If the Soviet Union had survived , Russians would have been an ethnic minority in it in nine years time .sx