Giving Starbucks the finger

Ive been too busy looking after someone in hospital to write properly - though my mind has flickered over religion, politics, the EU and all the usual things.. including the 'changing face of Britain'. 

London has it all. Its a terrific city with old and new, ancient and futuristic. Thats part of its charm. You can turn any corner and be assured you'll stumble upon some incredible piece of history.  We also have shops.  Loads of them.  We are Shop Central.  Im getting hacked off with the constant grind of corporate steamrollers ironing out our streets, stepford style, with the same bright and shiny formulaic shit. 

Last year a petition went up to 'save our street'.  The street is a beautiful Georgian street which the BBC frequently use for period dramas - full of properties I cant afford - with old fashioned shop fronts and quirky little businesses. They keep the area feeling like a community. Shopkeepers know you, they run wine tastings and throw the odd street party or market, they run tabs and IOUs, they pull together to stop the council cluttering the place up with 'street furniture'.  The petition was mounted because out of the blue the Council decided to sell off the leases.  In spite of thousands of local signatures the fuckers at the council went ahead.  We werent using the Downing Street petition forum.  It was just a local petition for local people.

Most of the shopkeepers, some of whose families have been there well over a hundred years, cannot afford the new stinkingly high greedy bastard lease costs.  Its pretty obvious that within a year the streets useful, friendly, quirky shops (and livelihoods) will be replaced with a revolting mix of Starbucks, Subways, mini Tescos and well, another bloody Starbucks probably.  None of which we need or want.

For anyone who hasn't yet heard, an application for planning permission has now also been approved by Camden County Council to demolish Camden Stables Market and to build a new complex with, ughhhh, "high street chains like Topshop and ...Starbucks".  Only idiots drink that milky foamy foul stuff.  (Christ, i thought Britain served tepid awful coffee in the odd greasy spoon at one point until Starbucks arrived gave the stuff ridiculously long names in funky little cups with sugary new flavOrs and tried to palm this crap off as an improvement)

Camden is a place of originality in music, fashion and alternative culture reflected in its stalls, market atmosphere, cafes and pubs. It is also a place of fascinating history. Nowhere has ever been quite like Camden market, and nowhere else ever will be if we lose it. We've lost our local street to the corporate steamrollers, weve lost the Kings Road and Kensington High Street, the canals around Kings Cross to the identikit formula of corporate developers over the last fifteen years... Please, don't let Camden go the same way. We can't let the Stables be torn down - They are such an integral part of Camden's ambiance and London itself won't be the same without them.  Sign the petition. We live in hope:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/camdenmarket/

Surprisingly few Londoners even know about the plans. This could be our last chance to make a difference. Its crazy how people worry about how this country has changed, relinquishing its sovereignty to Europe and ignore the rest. To me its always been 6 of one half a dozen of another in this respect. We are busily letting China, of all countries, hoover up half the country (HSBC = Holy Shit my Bank's Chinese) and allowing other foreign corporate giants to step in and alter what we know and love beyond recognition. 

God damn it. Man U, Arsenal..even Boots is no longer British. 

Sometimes in spite of the heat France gets about the anglo saxon formula they MUST take on (and which ive been cheerleading) I feel a huge twinge of jealousy at how they wont completely let go and have staved off cultural decline in that respect. No im not saying London is in decline, it isnt. That's the point.

Comments

[RC]

I agree with your analysis and your rage at this destruction caused by one thing above all else - GREED. I don't care what colour rosette these snout-in-trough politicos parade in, waft a bundle of cash in front of them and they're all the same.

I was recently in France, and as always I left with the feeling that there's so much we have lost that the French have managed to keep hold of, things that relate to the quality of life.

[aDM]

So true and the reason so many Brits disappear off to Europe - precisely for that old fashioned quality of life. Ive just been reading about Sarko and his pretty decent successes vis a vis the 35 hour week, strikes and taxes. I really dont, though, get the feeling he will sell France out completely the way weve bent over backwards for greed. I envy them. I couldnt believe it when i learned about Boots and Arsenal! (Meldrew Moment)

[RC]

I think there are two factors (in comparing England and France)which cannot be laid at the door of our current crop of puppets, or politicians if you prefer. One is France is much larger than England with a smaller population, and the other is the effects of the industrial revolution which forced the people out of the country and into the cities. So England is much more crowded than France, and the link between the city and country was ruptured a long time ago, which is far less the case in France, and Italy and Spain as well.

[aDM]

There is a lot in what you say re the industrial revolution

[ac#1]

I dunno Allie I love Starbucks. How could you not like Coffee when it's got like ice cream and caramel on it, that's good drinking right there. What Starbucks needs to do is appeal to the specific audience, in England for example they should serve Earl Grey (which makes my tongue numb when I drink it for some reason) with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles on top, that would do the Queen proud in my estimation.

[RC]

Earl Grey with whipped cream and chocolate? Perish the thought!

I'll always prefer an independent coffee shop over Starbucks. And the ones in France, you can still smoke in them. Another advantage over this miserable place in my view.