I'll be generous, and try VERY hard *not* to see this as a standard piece of distraction propaganda, in the 'agent provocateur' direction.

The actual business of chain stores in the UK is very interesting.

1) many chains LOSE money, despite clearly selling goods to a willing 'sucker' market (us) at some of the highest prices on the planet. Seems puzzling, until you learn that legally, the owners are allowed to extract vast amounts of capital from the business, into their own pockets.

2) the successful chains, especially the supermarkets, ALSO sell goods at the most expensive prices found in any large Western country, out of all proportion with the disposable income of their shoppers. However, the supermarkets are NOTORIOUS for selling serious substandard (from a quality point of view) meat, dairy, and vegetable produce. In other words, UK shoppers pay top prices, and get the lowest quality goods.

3) the owners of the largest chains are intimately connected with the political elite of the UK, either by association or membership. Basically, chain stores are a hidden taxation mechanism, that allows the population of the UK to finance the political movements that oppress them. It is no coincidence, for instance, that many supermarket chains return a TINY part of this taxation back to the consumer in the form of slightly lower petrol prices. Thus the shopper's OWN money is used to make the exhorbitant cost of petrol look a little lower, allowing said shopper to apparently tolerate the extraordinary cost of petrol in the UK.

4) It thus follows that the existance of chain stores form an intimate part of the astonishingly high tax regime in the UK. Chain stores allow hidden taxation to be maximised, and justified.

5) in order for the existence of chain stores to be protected, the normal consumer must find it almost impossible to source goods near the same trade prices that supermarkets pay, even when buying in minor bulk. Of course, this is NOT to say that individual 'smart' shoppers cannot do a lot better.

6) sometimes, chain stores appear to go against their own rules. The appearance of cheap (for the UK) quality clothing at several supermarket brands may seem generous (and is obviously welcome) but actually represents an extension of the political manipulation mentioned above. See 7,8).

7) famously, we are told that the UK is to see a massive expansion of the 'service sector'. For the unluckiest of us, this means working for these chain stores. Wages are rock bottom, and exployment conditions are the worst- the work only really suits people at a phase in their lives looking for casual employment (like students) and is pretty lousy for everyone else. The chains, allowed to treat their workers like crap by Blair, produce businesses that are unneccessarily inefficient and badly run, given that the underpaid worker would be an idiot to have pride in their job, or contribute ideas to improve the business. The low wage system means that ironically, the stores MAY be overstaffed, but that most customers will get the impression that the store would be far better run with smaller numbers of better paid, better motivated employees.

8) in the past, we have the famous stories of low paid workers forced to use their wages at 'company stores'. Today, the low pay regime of workers in chain stores, etc., is only maintainable if 'certain' of life's basic requirements are available at lower costs. Thus, as mentioned earlier, certain goods- including clothes- have seen significant price drops in the UK over the last decade or so, through the 'good' offices of certain supermarkets etc. Of course, this was neccessary to allow the low paid to aspire to 'slave' themselves to the lifetime cost of decent housing.

Once people worked the land of their local BARON, and were called SERFS. Today, people work the land of their distant KNIGHT, but are only called SERFS out of earshot. The elite of the past would understand our system in an instant, and wonder at achievement of it all. Back then, they had to wonder if a call to arms would lead to a rebellion, and an overthrow of the elite. Today, they would see that Blair could declare conscription active, and all those 'freemen' would go uncomplainingly from slaving in their stores, to dying in Blair's new battlefields.

FREEDOM is not what you have at this very second, but what you would have if push came to shove. This is the same with RIGHTS. A RIGHT is not something you use all the time, but something you expect to exist, if you come to have need of it.

Today, what do we truly have. In this most highly taxed regime, what does our money (which in reality is the fruits of our labour- ie., expended life) buy for this country. Where do you see the signs of ANY quality, or thoughtful progress. The more that is taken from us, the more we are bashed, and the less we are given. Democracy was the happy dream of a fine wine, but the fruit has withered and died on the vine. Our current system has fully failed, but this is hardly surprising since in reality it represents a tyranny of the truly stupid. Once past school, most people are glad to be free from the handful of intellectual students that made the rest look dull. They are pleased to be offered an adult system where 'politics' and 'business' appears to be run by ordinary, non-intellectual, fallible people like themselves. The actual FAILURE of government becomes a reassurance that the RIGHT people are running things.

It is a shadow game though, for the 'elite' are NOT of the ordinary people, although occassionally, an ordinary person may climb the ranks if their 'talents' prove suitable. Instead, the controlling 'elite' use the anti-intellectualism of the population as a convenient weapon against them. The 'elite' fear but one thing, that one day they will be swept from power by a 'correct' 'clever' system that will best look after the interests of ALL humanity. They know, however, that this change would have to be empowered by ordinary people, so they simple have to keep the population fearful and dullwitted and jealous of those amongst themselves that actually use their brains.

To all Shoplifters and especially any organisers of national sholifting day, We have arranged for a difeerent NSD which has been running since 2004 so any cooperation in either direction to genuinely make this Day noticed would be great check out the website and please email me so that resources can be pooled,

Cheers My lovelies,

FtJ