Am I the only one to already have Competition Commission inquiry fatigue? Just two weeks into the face-to-face hearings and I feel like I am holed up behind a locked door unable to get to the stuck record playing over and over again on the other side.

It's obvious isn't it? Supermarkets are to blame for the death of the high street, of independents, of suppliers and, of course, for the wholesale exit of farmers and growers from agriculture. Oh, and let's not forget that they - and only they - are responsible for lack of innovation, for clone-town Britain, for binge drinking, for the landfill crisis... I could go on and on. Let's face it, they are, in fact, the very epitome of evil.

Now, before I get inundated by calls from the great and good of the supermarket world, I am of course being flippant. But with all the negative views out there, one can easily forget supermarkets have given us easy access to an abundance of food (and non food) at competitive prices. They enable the mass market to experiment with cuisines, try interesting produce, manage their time effectively through the one-stop shop... again, I could go on and on.

This week the indomitable Kevin Hawkins put up a robust defence of the sector (p6). Over-production has a greater impact than buyer power on farmers' profits, he said. Manufacturers make healthier margins than their customers, he added. A cursory glance at this week's OC&C Index seems to back this up (p32).

However, for all the good they may have done, supermarkets cannot be absolved of all responsibility for the casualties in the British food chain. Some suppliers may indeed be doing well. But many aren't.

It is tough out there for everyone, even the multiples. But solutions will not come by playing a cracked record. I do wish we could turn it off.