It would be easy to go down the ‘tell us something we don’t know’ route with the latest offering from the Competition Commission (CC). But, we should be cheered by recognition that the disparity between the profit margin of UK supermarkets and their suppliers remains a threat to the industry.

The CC said it “could” damage future development, but as part of an inquiry that has proven itself the arch fence-sitter, that’s as close to an admission as is likely that current grocery sector practices are inequitable.

The entire supply chain knows it, the supermarkets know it, and the CC has now cottoned on to it too, but what surprised me most was the lack of national media coverage given to the CC’s working paper. As the CC purports to be acting in the interests of the consumer, surely it could have used its powers to cajole a few more column inches and inform a wide cross-section of the public of its interim findings. Instead, it appears to have done the opposite.

The same might be said for the first positive reflection on the SFVS for some time, which entered the public domain at the end of last week. Where are the tabloid headlines?

The answer to both quandaries may well lie in political corridors. It has been a good week to bury stories that don’t suit the political agenda, and it is not politically sound at the moment to either back the SFVS or slam supermarkets.