Bomfords

I will admit to finding this terribly, terribly amusing.

The ALP first drew the Inland Revenue's attention to Bomfords' rates and how far adrift they were from these indicative rates in April 2005. In the same month it also warned Tesco, it says. It adds that companies paying consistently below the indicative rate are knowingly or recklessly conniving in illegality. Tesco says it has no record of a specific warning from the ALP.

After the GLA inspection, Bomfords employed more workers directly and had to pay significantly higher rates. A few months later, it is bust. It is said to owe growers, including farmers in Africa, about £18m.

Now, Tesco and the administrators are saying that it was capital spending decisions (a new packing plant for example) that bankrupted the firm. Felicity Lawrence needs, for her argument to work, for it to be the rise in the wage bill that caused the collapse.

Which, I think you'll agree, is most amusing? That is, a column in The Guardian is not just arguing, nor even assuming, but insisting, that a rise in the minimum wage bankrupts companies and puts people out of work.

Well, yes, of course, I agree, but it's just an odd place to see the argument, that's all.