Britain in the World Economy

In June 1984 a striking Durham miner interviewed on television asked a simple question: ‘Why pay me £60 a week to do nothing if I’m unemployed, when, with this or less to help cut the cost, I could be usefully mining coal?’. At much the same time another simple question was being asked: ‘If food surpluses are piling up unused here and elsewhere people are starving, why is not the food sent where the need is?’. To store EEC surplus grain for four years costs £200 a tonne; to transport it to where the need is costs £25 a tonne ( Observer , 28 October 1984). Why are not resources moved to needs, saving people and money? These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.