Boycotting Amazon

Indeed not. It was only Milky Bars and Kit-Kats that affected us anyway. The kids understood.

Weren't Kit-Kats Rowntrees?

They used to be, absent but the label now clearly says Nestlé. I think Rowntree was subsumed into Nestlé as Cadbury is now part of Kraft, though the name has been retained. Terry's of York (of Chocolate Orange fame) became part of Kraft as long ago as 1993. Even the organic brand Green and Black's was absorbed into Cadbury's and so presumably is now owned by the omnipresent Kraft.

I'm not very keen on chocolate and eat it only rarely, so I'm not familiar with who owns what nowadays. I did know about Kraft and the disgraceful way it was allowed to barge in on a promise on which it immediately reneged. Does it pay its full share of tax here, I wonder?

Absentgrana I did not intend the remark to be rude, but if that's how you want to regard it, so be it. I expressed an honestly held opinion, that was all.

Okey dokey Ceesnan. It just sounded as if you were saying that all this was a lot of meaningless hot air. I must have misunderstood.

It's just so easy to misinterpret written comments!

Actually, it's fairly easy to misinterpret spoken comments too.

Absent and Bags, you do not need to check Companies House to find out what is owned by whom. Ethical Consumer now does it for you.

I believe that Nelson Mandela would not be out of prison if boycotts did not work. I now buy South African Fairtrade wine as the workers get a better deal than they did.

Terry's of York closed a few years ago. Their chocolate oranges are now made in Poland, I think.

Rowntrees of York is owned by Nestle. They used to make Kitkats and Smarties in York. Half the factory has been closed down and made into a museum, I think, or that was the plan when we left York. They will soon move out of York and all York will have left will be chocolate museums.
I still boycott their products because whatever they say, they still sell babymilk powder to women who do not have access to clean water.

Rowntrees, like Cadburys, were big Quaker families, and there is still a Quaker school and village in York. You have the Rowntree family to thank for bank holidays. There is also the Rowntree Foundation which still does a lot of work on poverty and social housing.

I have just looked at taxresearch.org.uk and searched for Cherie Blair.
The private equity firm she has set up to invest in medical services centres to be located in Sainsburys stores has been set up in Delaware and Cayman.
Apparently Delaware keeps it secret, though not from taxresearch.org.uk, and Cayman is for low tax. Either way money that should be invested in the NHS gets taken out of the UK.

Thanks Jen. I had forgotten about Ethical Consumer, although I was being slightly facetious with that comment. I think you could well be right about Nelson Mandela and I do think all the boycotting and demonstrating outside South Africa House influenced political decisions. I think boycotting wine from the Nappa Valley also helped with a solution to problems about pay and workers' rights in California. It's difficult to tell whether boyctts really have an effect but I think there's no harm in trying.

JEND . HO HUM !

For aeons I boycotted South African products, but the clincher for a sports-mad nation, was the sporting boycott. Sadly, there can be no such sanction for Amazon and the other culprits.

Ya know, all those times when one has tried not to feel critical of C Blair...
I was thinking that about SA this morning anno - the sports boycott was so much more tangible and obvious than unmeasurable lower sales of Outspan oranges.

I obviously agree Absent.
To all those who say what's the point in boycotting, I say why not?
What harm does a boycott do to you?
Can't find out if it works until you do it.
New Year's resolution. If Amazon haven't changed their ways before then, boycott in the New Year. You can buy your Christmas presents, but no birthday presents from them.
Last year nearly all my Christmas presents came through Amazon. This year, none.
I have removed all my information from the site, and they are not allowed to send me any more emails. It was at least one a day.

I can't remember not feeling critical of Cherie Blair - certainly not since that fiasco about her son's flat and her very bad acting.

Agreed, but is her greed any worse than Amazon's is my question? Why is her greed odious, and Amazon's not worth a boycott?

She doesn't have the most trustworthy looking smile in the world, does she?

Re the point or otherwise of boycotts: if Nestlé is still promoting dried baby milk in areas where people don't have access to clean water, what was the point of me and others boycotting Milky Bars and KitKats thirty years ago? It clearly had no effect whatsoever. The point for me is that it is pointless to do something pointless if the point of the pointless action is to make a point and change something. Why did I bother all those years ago? What good did it do to anyone, including me? I'm through with quixotic gestures.

Does Amazon have a New Year sale?

[badjoke emoticon]

They're both odious, jura. Doesn't mean we can do anything about weither of them, or any other equally odious tax evasion practices. I'd rather expend my energy doing something actually useful.

Get off, Bags - I lay claim to bad jokes!

Bags It doesn't take any energy not to shop at Amazon or not to buy Nestlé products.

I'm taking the piss, absent!

Anyway, I contend that worrying needlessly does use energy.

But don't let me digress from the boycotting lobby group.