BootsnAll Travel Network



Loser’s London

<rant>
Thatcher used to say that anyone over thirty still taking the bus, is a loser. I think anyone over 40 who can’t afford to live in the capital is definitely a loser. Coming to London for the writer’s group yesterday, I certainly felt like one. I wondered how all the people that live in the tiny shoe-box flats south of the river manage to pay their rent, but one thing is for sure: I’d rather live in a hovel in Deptford than in a house in Hampshire.

Tadley is the village of the nearly undead. Curtains twitch whenever we leave the house. Our grey-haired next-door neighbours potter around their stamp-sized patch of a garden all day long, occasionally casting disapproving glances our way. They look like they retired at least a quarter of a century ago. I don’t really want to have BBQs in our yard with them on the other side of a hip-high chicken fence. And despite my dreams to the contrary last night, the local kids are not going to join the peace movement. What the hell am I doing in Tadley?

I feel twice the loser because every second business around Holborn seems to be sandwich bar or coffeeshop, with juice bars and salad counters becoming more and more prominent. What riles me particularly is the chain ‘EAT’ which started at the same time as I tried to build my own ‘sandwich emporium’ (and near enough nicked my name). At the time, I thought the marked was saturated but I am dumbfounded at the number ot ‘EAT’ signs around. If my business had suceeded in the most modest way possible—just enough to pay one employee and make the place mouse-proof and throw out that stupid griddle and realise my business plan properly—the last three years would never have happened and I would have an income on my own.

But what really gets me is the corporate greed everywhere. Not one of these chains has a fair-trade policy—something I thought you needed to do business in the twenty-first century. At a profit margin in excess of 95% for each shot of espresso at the heart of their coffees, Starbucks has yet to introduce an ethical policy, although they make noises every now and then when their PR department deems it a good idea. Don’t believe any of it. I remember back in 1999 you could buy a cup of fair trade coffee (by whatever name they called it) but you had to pay extra. How cynical that the fat cats pass on (more than!) the cost of fairtrade beans just so that their customers can feel better about drinking their coffee.

It would be nice to be back in London but perhaps being a loser that can’t afford to pay the rent in the capital is not such a bad thing if it means I don’t have to have any part in that greed. There is no Starbucks in Tadley. Come to think of it—there isn’t one in New Cross either. At least not yet.
</rant>


Nice one: just heard on the radio that Paula’s won the London Marathon. She was clearly affected by a bug in Greece and it is great to see her back on form.

Tags: ,



Comments are closed.