OFF to the Bath and West today to see if any new records are being set – on the catering front. And if any farmers are still unconvinced about the merits of adding value to their product, then I suggest they tour the various stands selling hot food. They might learn a thing or two.

They will need to go equipped: with large amounts of mazuma and a calculator, the latter particularly useful for working out the value of a pig on the basis of what is charged for a few slivers of roast pork shoved into a roll, perhaps with a smear of apple sauce and a peanut-sized helping of stuffing.

The exercise should then be repeated for beef, sausages, burgers and any other comestibles. Prices for them have long since exceeded the level where they were eye- watering, they have now moved into the category of being scandalous and cannot go any higher without becoming surreal.

Traders will doubtless point to the enormous sums they have to hand over for a pitch and weep copiously over all the other costs they face. But sooner or later – and particularly when wallets are being squeezed – they will run into the brick wall of resistance, when punters refuse to hand over three or even four quid for a few pence worth of meat stuffed between two layers of pappy white bread.