Last night’s No. 10 press conference descended into farce as Environment Secretary George Eustice announced the launch of his new ‘Pick for Britain’ campaign, encouraging furloughed workers to volunteer as food pickers to fill in for shortages of migrant labour. Immediately after announcing the new website, pickforbritain.org.uk, it spent the next six hours offline or crashing. Collapsed by an entirely predictable traffic spike…

You would think Eustice of all people could competently introduce a farm-picking programme; given his own Cornwall farm, Trevaskis, has been running a “Pick Your Own” scheme for 40 years, where from 8am to 7pm your family can go and pick fruit and veg, while learning all about what you’re choosing.

Much like Britain’s proper food picking industry, Eustice’s farm tells hopeful visitors “there is currently nothing picking”…