THIS morning I was obliged to buy our favourite blend of tea as our tea-bags were few.

My favoured suppliers were in Cowley. Out of interest I went to the Co-op, where 80 tea bags cost £2.15. Excoriated, I hurried to Iceland, where 80 bags cost £2.

Next door is Wilkinson’s – where I paid £1.74 for the same 80 bags.

This is a salutary tale. An identical brand with exactly the same contents and packaging, could be bought for 41p cheaper.

And we’re supposed to be in a universal credit crunch with unprecedented job losses, mass unemployment and endless misery.

LIONEL HORNER, Headington, Oxford