stuff: December 2007 Archives
The No Mill Road Tesco campaign has brought out conflicting opinions in me. On one hand, sticking it to The Man is always fun, and healthy, and a sign that people are awake. On the other hand, the rainbow Nazi streak running through the no campaign is The Man in dungarees. Having played devil's advocate in my local, only to be stonewalled by a fen troll hence onwards (even when I met him in the soulless Sainsburys supermarket) I am naturally inclined towards bringing Tesco to Mill Road myself. Political differences over minor matters shouldn't become personal. Big things like racism, sure, but the little things shouldn't come between friends. Oh well.
Continue reading The No Mill Road Tesco Campaign.
Every year, without fail, we get a warning from retailers that Christmas sales are down on last year; that they will be discounting goods in the next few days to shift stock; and that the last minute rush might be greater than last year, making it possible you won't find the presents you want to buy.
I expect retailers to do this. It's classic sales spiel. Or lies in other words. "Sale Now On" means nothing: of course there's sale now on - it's a shop selling stuff, which is also known as a "sale" - but it's immediate and it lies by implying that there's something extra special to what prices they are accepting for their wares at this very moment when there isn't. The same with the identical doom and gloom predictions they issue each year about Christmas. It's just nonsense.
Journalists keep publishing this nonsense. Of course, most journalists will have walked in a town centre in the past month or two and experience the scrum of bodies all bustling around buying the latest gadgets and must haves for nearest and dearest. It's the human equivalent of the great migrations of African wildlife reaching a ford in a river, concentrating into a dense mass of bodies all pushing and shoving to get to the other side. Any fool knows that the high street is busy as hell.
But they keep on publishing because it's bad news, it's frightening, it's scary, it plays on a misguided sense of nationalism (if we don't buy loads of stuff now the economy will collapse - spend for Britain!) and editors love a good bad news story more than they like probing the contents of press releases made by shop keepers.
Keep on shopping. Shop more. Time is running out. The economy will collapse if you don't. There will be bargains to be had. There is a sale. now. on.
I expect retailers to do this. It's classic sales spiel. Or lies in other words. "Sale Now On" means nothing: of course there's sale now on - it's a shop selling stuff, which is also known as a "sale" - but it's immediate and it lies by implying that there's something extra special to what prices they are accepting for their wares at this very moment when there isn't. The same with the identical doom and gloom predictions they issue each year about Christmas. It's just nonsense.
Journalists keep publishing this nonsense. Of course, most journalists will have walked in a town centre in the past month or two and experience the scrum of bodies all bustling around buying the latest gadgets and must haves for nearest and dearest. It's the human equivalent of the great migrations of African wildlife reaching a ford in a river, concentrating into a dense mass of bodies all pushing and shoving to get to the other side. Any fool knows that the high street is busy as hell.
But they keep on publishing because it's bad news, it's frightening, it's scary, it plays on a misguided sense of nationalism (if we don't buy loads of stuff now the economy will collapse - spend for Britain!) and editors love a good bad news story more than they like probing the contents of press releases made by shop keepers.
Keep on shopping. Shop more. Time is running out. The economy will collapse if you don't. There will be bargains to be had. There is a sale. now. on.
There's been a lot more media coverage of this issue lately, as well as feelers put out by Government for their piecemeal, inconsequential suggested measures designed to be seen to be doing something without actually doing something. But first, what is it that's wrong and what is it that we want instead?
Well, I suggest we all want to be able to get merrily drunk, have a night out, totter home and remember the night out with fondness. We also want to be able to cook with a bottle of wine, maybe have a few beers with the barbecue should summer ever arrive. Or maybe a single malt with our supper. Basically, we want a situation where grown ups can have a drink and enjoy it without being caught up in fights, sick, abuse, outbursts and injuries. What we don't want is po-faced health fanatics turning drinking into the same pariah state as smoking.
I suggest the answer lies mostly in existing legislation: it is an offence to sell alcohol to a person who is drunk, as is being drunk and disorderly, as is selling alcohol to under 18s, as is urinating in public. The question really has to be why aren't these powers being used? I noticed in Melbourne that the police there have a "booze bus" - a double decker bus converted inside into multiple police cells. Disorderly drunks can then spend a night in the cells sleeping it off without police vans carting them from one end of town to the other. Pubs and clubs that produce the trouble makers should be warned then fined if they continue serving drunks. Those gents who piss in shop doorways could also spend a night on the booze bus. The only hurdle is having enough police on duty to enforce the current laws. A few months of pressuring licensees and punters to be reasonable would have a great effect. More so than more, interminable, ineffectual "education".
Well, I suggest we all want to be able to get merrily drunk, have a night out, totter home and remember the night out with fondness. We also want to be able to cook with a bottle of wine, maybe have a few beers with the barbecue should summer ever arrive. Or maybe a single malt with our supper. Basically, we want a situation where grown ups can have a drink and enjoy it without being caught up in fights, sick, abuse, outbursts and injuries. What we don't want is po-faced health fanatics turning drinking into the same pariah state as smoking.
I suggest the answer lies mostly in existing legislation: it is an offence to sell alcohol to a person who is drunk, as is being drunk and disorderly, as is selling alcohol to under 18s, as is urinating in public. The question really has to be why aren't these powers being used? I noticed in Melbourne that the police there have a "booze bus" - a double decker bus converted inside into multiple police cells. Disorderly drunks can then spend a night in the cells sleeping it off without police vans carting them from one end of town to the other. Pubs and clubs that produce the trouble makers should be warned then fined if they continue serving drunks. Those gents who piss in shop doorways could also spend a night on the booze bus. The only hurdle is having enough police on duty to enforce the current laws. A few months of pressuring licensees and punters to be reasonable would have a great effect. More so than more, interminable, ineffectual "education".
