Check out supermarket sweep - it's a scream!
Maurice O'Brien • Published 12 May 2012 09:30
3 Comments
THE return of a prodigal son to Reading's Labour frontline wasn't just a cause for party celebrations but it also surely heralds a new era in political integrity.
To see such a key figure so openly proclaiming where he does his weekly shop, not only in election literature but on the Reading Borough Council ballot paper too, warmed the democratic cockles. There it was, proudly endorsed, Tony Jones (Lab-Co-op).
Only our boy from the valleys knows how many times he had to try saying, 'good with food' in a Scottish accent whenever he popped in for a bag of spuds, but in all modesty he's probably happy to point to an earlier publicity slogan that used to declare: "It's all at the Co-op!" Bet the others are wondering how things might have turned out come dawn last Friday had Dave Luckett (Con-Morrisons) or Kirsten Bayes (Lib Dem-Waitrose) been on the ballot forms, or indeed had the UKIP candidates bracketed their party affiliations with British Airways, Gas or Home Stores. But just how much more honest would it make our MPs if, rather than devising ever more arcane ways of bamboozling the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, they had to list the places they spend our money on their tellies, sandwich toasters, wine coolers and mortgages? We could then see at a glance if Fred Sniperbucket (Lab-Harrods-Fortnum & Mason-Savoy-Halifax) was better value for money than Everard Duckworth-Lewis (Con-Asda-Iceland-Travelodge-Nationwide).
The political establishment won't need any more evidence of the need for a credibility boost after the Apathetic Tendency stayed at home in force last week (not me guv, West Berkshire didn't bother us this time) in the latest triumph for none of the above. The choice must have been a bit like Saturday's FA Cup Final - if only both teams could have lost! Now, albeit the House of Commons only sat 98 days last year and will manage even fewer this time around, we've got to cough up £300,000 to buy each of the unwashed an iPad, presumably to prevent them getting bored when all those debate thingies are happening. Engineers, carpenters and plumbers have to buy their own tools, so why on earth shouldn't that rule apply to unskilled trades as well?
AS FOR Edvard Munch's The Scream, apart from the fact that it's not even unique because there are four versions knocking about, for someone to spend 74 million quid on what's at best a grotesque doodle is truly hysterical. Obscenely so.
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syls
Unregistered User
May 13, 18:39
Report commentI dont suppose that the writer really knows anything about Co-op values or principles, if so he would not have written such diatribe. Yes, its true that 'Labour Co-op Party' are sister parties and are legally such, so if BA or Harrods choose to go that way and be ethical and co-operative then that would be some revelation. It does seem that ordinary people forget how the labour movement and the cooperative movement stood up for working people and really cared about the welfare of their members. It seems to me that the 'big society' which Cameron first mentioned at the doors of no 10, that he missed the boat a long time ago as we did it first, with the 'Big-Co-operation '
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Katesgrove
Unregistered User
May 17, 02:48
Report commentHang on, what on earth is this article trying to say? Tony Jones was listed as Labour-Co-op, because he was endorsed both by the Labour Party AND the Co-operative Party. Perhaps then the writer of this article should have researched what the Co-operative Party actually is. It is NOT the Co-op Food. Co-op Food is a business that runs along co-operative lines; the Co-operative Party advocates such principles for businesses. One is a business, the other is a political party.
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No 1
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MauriceOBrien
Unregistered User
May 17, 10:28
Report commentOh dear chaps, do lighten up. I am well aware of the difference between the Co-op Party and a grocery store. Unfortunately, I forgot that some people do not possess a sense of humour.
Recommend? Yes 6
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