THURSDAY’S leading business story on the BBC discussed fruit and veg farmers facing a shortage of labour.

If farms encounter a severe shortage of staff then productivity will fall accordingly, perhaps not as much as if the workers had formed a union, but nevertheless it needs to be addressed.

Estimates state we need approximately 80,000 people that are young, fit, short of cash and free over seasonal periods.

Instead of having many young British people spend their summer organising protests or travelling around Europe leaving a trail of alcohol fuelled destruction behind, why not put them to work. They’re already a lot closer to the farms than workers in Romania so just adopt the same arrangements. We also have 85,000 people in prison, and a further 1.5 million unemployed.

So who will gather in the harvest this year? Take your pick, there’s plenty to choose from.

It’s time we adopted a proper work ethic ourselves instead of viewing menial jobs as something that should be delegated to foreign workers as if we are above such grafting.

This work is low skilled but still a means for some to earn a living and should be viewed with equal respect.

I only hope some eastern Europeans stay long enough to explain to our youth why their homeland is so poor that they accept such work in the UK.

Students could then consider the summer holidays as a university placement in applied socialism.

Dr Scott Marmion, Woodthorpe, York