UNTIL this Government repealed a long-lived consumer protection law, the shrinking loaf would have been illegal. Earlier and wiser legislators knew it was so easy to disguise the short weight of bread that they passed a law requiring all “large loaves” to be at least 14 ounces (now 800 grams). Clever marketeering will tell us we’re better off with our “new-size” loaf, just like clever marketeering told us we would be better off without all the restrictive red-tape that hampered innovation.

But like many things this Government has done, it has only helped their friends in big business – not the consumers they were elected to protect.

Jeff Bell, Stockton