customers - a breakthrough. I won't be naming them till I see the logo on the right on one of the lines in her delightful outlet and then I will resume my overdraft maintenance activities with gusto. Till then, I may have to desist.CEO says the issue for her is quality, that she hasn't found a Fair Trade registered coffee with good enough quality. Does anyone know of one? I mean really REALLY good? Yes, I have tasted the ones you can get ready ground but neither they nor the very few FT registered beans I have ever tasted even come close to this quality, it's a one way street and I may have to give up coffee completely if they don't find something Fair AND tasty from Peru soon (that seems to be the most likely candidate said CEO has got). I have heard rumours of fine coffe from Uganda - please share the love and pass on the information if you have it, my caffeine addicted bones won't rest till I can get my fix with squeaky clean conscience and taste buds as happy as does the champagne my champagne socialism occassionally tickles them with.
The main thing is I want to find out how much consumer power counts for in the modern day - we are supposed to be consumers and to exercise our political influence at the check out so I hope that this saga has inspired some to at least ask the question in their favourite shops; why don't they stock any (or more) Fair Trade goods. We do have some power, it may be small but when more of us ask for things that matter, our voices get heard. Or am I being naive? Answers in the comments box, or by carrier pigeon, or attached to a fine bottle of pink fizz (is there a Fair Trade champagne? Is there a call for one? or are champagne producers not in need of such a thing to protect them? I suspect the latter but would be grateful for further information).
It's too hot to rant. If it weren't, there would be words on GROWTH NOT CUTS. I might mention that the current proposed form of voting reform is NOT what a lot of people voted for and barely counts as proportional representation. I could ask, coyly, why there is a new line of comment around about, that the coalition agreement isn't actually giving anyone what they voted for (and it would be tempting to say I told you so...see previous blogs). I could rail against the ubiquity of football and hurl forwards the possibility that supporting INGERLAND is a rallying point for the reassertion of nationalistic heteronormative hegemonic narrative (but that wouldn't make me many friends at parties). Or I could point out, annoyingly, that in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon, over 6 turgid volumes, in 1776, pointed out that said decline was marked by a public obsession with celebrity and sport. He also did a fine job of denigrating organised religion. If you happen to be in Bentinck Street in London you can lay a copy of Heat magazine and your St George's flag themed memorabilia at the foot of his blue plaque in tribute and pray for the arrest of the Holy Father when his lips touch the tarmac in Heathrow this Autumn.
But like I said, too hot. I am taking to my chaise with three papers about domestic violence and a loose idea for a board game called choose a new labour leader snakes and ladders. And a yearning for a mint julep. I have no idea what they are but I think F. Scott Fitzgerald characters would be sipping on one right now. They certainly wouldn't be blowing unitone vuvuzuelas.
