Best of British

THE new rules governing the clearer labelling of British produce are welcome – and offer further evidence that new laws are not always the answer to every policy conundrum. New Labour's stock answer to many issues was to rush to the statute book, one reason why criminal justice policy became so convoluted over the past 13 years.

Yet, as this newspaper argued through our Clearly British campaign, the most important commodity is, invariably, basic common sense – a point that the British Retail Consortium has now endorsed with its new guidelines.

Although long-overdue, the consensus built by the BRC, in conjunction with agricultural leaders, means there's absolutely no excuse for shops – large or small – selling farm produce that has inaccurate "country of origin" labelling. More importantly, it puts an end to meat being sold, under false pretences, as British when the produce has only been packaged here.

It does not end here, however. The duty of consumers and farm campaigners, having come so far, is to ensure that this edict is enforced – and to highlight those stores which fail to keep their side of the bargain.