Ellee Seymour

Many of us will be tucking into our prawn cocktails over the festive season, but how would you feel if you knew those prawns had travelled 12,000 miles before ending up on your plate?

Ethical eating is going to be big business as carbon footprinting takes off, more companies like Young’s could find themselves named and shamed for shipping prawns off to Thailand from their UK base simply to be hand peeled because of their cheaper labour.

This decision resulted in the loss of 120 UK jobs, and environmentally conscious customers are now threatening to boycott Young’s.

Young’s has published a statement outlining their reasons, that prawns intended for hand-peeling are always matured for three weeks and that the greenhouse gas emission involved in shipping the prawns to Thailand would be roughly comparable with storing the product in freezers in the United Kingdom.

But is it falling on deaf ears, are we becoming too blinkered to see their point of view, do we just hear what we want to hear on occasions like this? The fact that heavy local job losses are involved has made this a difficult case for Young’s to argue in their favour.

At the same time, Young’s has to run a profitable business, so are we prepared to pay more for our prawns to be peeled in the UK? Up to a point, I think, it’s a case of finding the right level that would please both the consumer and business. And how do you feel about your food travelling all those miles, leaving the UK and travelling half way around the world and back again?

Is it fair that London taxpayers should bear the full brunt of the astonomical costs for the 2012 Olympics, a national event that will benefit other parts of the country too?

This was one of the questions posed to a panel at yesterday’s inspirational Conservative Women’s Organisation’s conference. Their feeling was that the whole country should pay towards it.

Dame Pauline Neville-Jones said: “I see no reason for London’s taxpayers to bear the burden. It is a national burden and should be borne as a national charge.”

Shadow Women’s Minister for Women Eleanor Laing said: “I think the British taxpayer as a whole will end up paying very large amounts for the Olympics, but, of course, we will have a Conservative Government before then so all is not lost. Hopefully the Conservative Government will find entrepreneurial enterprising ways of making money out of thousands of people who will come here for the Olympics.”

She recalled how Australia had had a Minister for the Olympics to spearhead the project, but accused our Government of being clueless.

Greece suffered huge debts after hosting the games in 2004, there are many lessons to be learned from their experience.

I remember Croydonian expressing grave doubts on 18 Doughty Street about the benefits of the 2012 Olympics being hosted in London, the fact it would hit them hard financially for many years to come. Has anyone calculated what this extra cost will be on the London ratepayer? If not, I hope someone comes up with those figures, equates it to the individual taxpayer already struggling to make ends meet. Taxpayers should be made fully aware of exactly what the full burden is likely to be.

This is a special moment of national pride that the whole country will join in on, and as a country, it is only fair that we share the costs, hard up as we may be. Hopefully, the costs will be minimised with the right business backing so we do not end up suffering huge debts like Greece. The expected cost of the 2012 London Olympic park has risen 40% since the games were won in July 2005, the chances are that this will not be the final figure, it will continue to rise - a terrifying thought for London taxpayers. The Olympics needs to have full public confidence and support in order to succeed.

Do you feel only Londoners should be paying, or is it fairer to share the cost across the country?

While on the subject of the Olympics, please give a thought to the Iraqi sports people who have no training grounds, the fact that some have been kidnapped, and how even wearing a pair of shorts can be reason enough to be murdered.

Update: 13.30, How about this for timing, I’ve just had an email announcing the launch of the London 2012 blog: Work in Progress.