Nibbles to 4th May 2021

DAVID vs GOLIATH IN A SHOPPING PARADE

“One person can make a difference, and everyone should try” JFK (Allegedly)

Near where we live is a small parade of four shops. If I mentioned three of their trading names beyond the confines of Ringwood here in Hampshire in the UK people would not recognize them. That is how local and independent these three shops are. They harbour no ambitions for national or global dominance, just a desire to service the local community through sheer hard work to supply the quality of products that local consumers want. They are Belinda’s the bakery, Poulner Fish and Chips and the Wine Box. There is a fourth shop, a Tesco Express, which is owned by a national giant in the UK retail trade sector. (annual turnover 2019 £37.2 billion.) A true "Goliath" of UK retail.

Under the terms of the individual leases taken out by these four businesses no one business can offer goods or services in direct competition with the other businesses in the parade. That includes the Wine Box which is licensed to retail alcohol. In the UK such outlets are called “off licences” which in America and Canada are known as “liquor stores”. The Wine Box cannot sell food products and conversely, Tesco cannot sell alcohol products. Seems reasonable and fair.

Have those terms and conditions prevented Tesco from applying for a licence to retail alcohol in contravention of the terms of their lease and in direct competition to the Wine Box?

NO!

Included in the term “direct competition” is the understanding that because Tesco is such a large business it would be able to take advantage of its superior buying power and then supply alcohol at prices lower than possible with an independent retailer. Not forgetting the possibility that if they did get the licence they could force the Wine Box to close; a business built up from nothing over the last six years from nothing to become a viable and valuable part of the community.

Needless to say the application by Tesco generated a furor of local anger causing a flood of objections to be submitted to the local licensing authority. At the time of publication there was no news about the outcome of the licence hearing.

David's should never be afraid to take on Goliath's and we should help whenever we can.

WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY

"Freedom of the press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose" - George Orwell

This has been celebrated annually on 3rd May as designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Since its inception in 1991 Reporters Without Borders (RSF), founded in 1985, has been producing an annual league table measuring the degrees of press freedom in over 160 countries around the world.

World Press Freedom Day in 2021 was marked in Washington DC by President Biden:

“We celebrate the courage of truth tellers who refuse to be intimidated, often at great personal risk, and we reaffirm the timeless and essential role of journalism and a free media play in societies everywhere.”

Dignified and measured words from the incumbent President in the Gardens of the White House. The USA lies 44th in the 2021 press freedom table which is better than 48th in the 2020 table. The write up on the USA on the RSF website has an optimistic tone and hopeful tone when it refers to President Biden’s first 100 days in office. Those 100 days have seen greater transparency and accountability through regular press briefings. The administration wants to improve the country’s standing in this league.

Compared to the words from the former President Trump on the same day.

"Populists have never had a good press in Freedom's land" - Gore Vidal

Although the United Kingdom is higher Placed than the USA (33rd 2021 and 35th 2020) its record is nothing that it can be proud of. 33rd puts her lower down the league than Jamaica (7th), Uruguay (18th) and Namibia (24th). 33rd incidentally puts the UK lower than most of the remaining 27 EU countries. The write up on the UK on the RSF website is cause for concern. The strap line at the top of the article is:

“UK press freedom marred by FOI (freedom of information) restrictions, the detention of Julian Assange and the threat to the safety of journalists in Northern Ireland”.

The article goes on to illustrate that these worrying aspects of press freedom are in contradiction to the Government’s aim to “defend global media freedom”. Yet domestic restrictions imposed by the Government are a cause for concern. And, unlike the administration in America there was no statement from Downing Street directly to mark World Press Freedom Day. Only a bland statement from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that the country had signed up to an international agreement to promote freedom of the press.

How ironic, as our current Prime Minister was a member of the press reporting from such august places as Brussels. That was until he was caught out fabricating quotes for an article he wrote for The Times. Working for that paper was a home truth he conveniently omitted from his LinkedIn profile. May be that is a fair indicator of what he thinks of the press and honesty? An irritating inconvenience fed by so called "chatty rats" from within Downing Street that leak details of his administration to the media.

Thank goodness for Private Eye who specialize in exposing the weaknesses, hypocrisies and outright fallibility of those in positions of authority regardless of their political hue. No one is inviolate. They are truly the last bastion of a free press in this country.

"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost" - Thomas Jefferson

HOW TO HARVEST COCONUTS

I have never read “Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights” or any of the individual stories. That was until I picked up a slim Penguin pocketbook of “The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor” from a charity shop in a nearby town.

It was educational to say the least. Not in the formal sense of expanding my vocabulary or knowledge of algebra but it was educational on two fronts in terms of lessons of life.

Whenever I board a ship of any size going anywhere I will insist on being able to go through the passenger manifest. If I find the name “Sinbad” I will immediately be asking for a full refund on my ticket. It can only be a portent of a shipping disaster to share any type of floating vessel with him. The man is an absolute jinx for any voyage he joins. Everyone of his voyages ended in a shipwreck and coincidentally, he is always the only one to survive these disasters. He should be be blacklisted by Lloyds of London, the insurance market.

The other thing I learnt from this book, which will be useful if I do survive shipwreck and find myself washed up on a tropical shore is how to harvest coconuts. All I have to do is find the trees, collect some rocks and throw them into the trees aiming at the coconuts. Hopefully, if there are any monkeys in the trees they will get annoyed with me throwing the rocks at them and throw coconuts back at me in revenge. Quite simple really.