Armlock still in place

NOW the bad news. According to a survey commissioned by organic sup- plier Riverford, relations between farmers and supermarkets are becom- ing even more strained.

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Thanks mainly to supermarkets exploiting the power imbalance which has always given them the upper hand. Except that farmers now find their arms shoved even further up between their shoulder blades while ruinously bad contracts are waved in front of their eyes.

This was the famous 'armlock' which Tony Blair promised to break during the last Labour administration. And did he? Of course not. It was never going to be that simple.