Jim Armitage: Should Sainsbury's bother with a distracting takeover of Argos?

As Sainsbury’s old flagbearer Jamie Oliver would say: “Pukka!”

The supermarket chain’s boss Mike Coupe claims, with justification, that he’s taking on the threat of Aldi and Lidl, and winning.

Turns out the secret sauce isn’t that complicated.

Cut prices across the board, ditch those annoying multibuy deals that mean customers have to buy a Tower of Pisa’s worth of bogroll, and watch the money pile in.

Given the success this focused approach is having so far, it makes you wonder: why bother with a perilous, distracting takeover of Argos?

Well, let’s roll up a doobie and celebrate. Just hours after my call yesterday for the Chancellor’s Budget to encourage companies to raise equity rather than debt, marijuana-medicines maker GW Pharma announced a breakthrough cure for epilepsy… funded by $500 million (£350 million) of new equity.

The share price more than doubled, harvesting paper riches for its new shareholders.

London-based GW has had many a pitfall over the years, but equity investors — with their willingness to take the kinds of risks banks wouldn’t — still backed its recent fundraisers.

I’m sure George Osborne knows nothing of illegal highs, but he should take note of this cannabis breakthrough and see how tax breaks for equity would light up a groovy new stimulant for the British economy.