Last week, 35 deluded business leaders wrote to the Telegraph to praise George Osborne's cruel spending review.

I'm joining those who have decide to boycott every single company that those business leaders represent.

There are two reasons for this:

1) The first is that leaders on the list take us for suckers - a trait I rarely care for in people I spend my money with.

They wrote:

"There is no reason to think that the pace of consolidation envisaged in the Budget will undermine the recovery. The private sector should be more than capable of generating additional jobs to replace those lost in the public sector, and the redeployment of people to more productive activities will improve economic performance, so generating more employment opportunities."
The letter authors decided the advantages of signing the letter meant more than being straight with their customer base.

And they weren't straight with their customers at all. Liberal Conspiracy was leaked a private email that clearly demonstrated that people on the list had no confidence whatsoever in the nation's 'improved economic performance' or the 'generation of more employment opportunities' of which their Telegraph letter spoke. Osama Saeed had the names of those who, when not flying pro-cuts and pro-government flags, were laying thousands of people off and/or telling grim tales about the realities of lie of the fiscal land.

It also seemed that many of the 35 had reasons for cheerleading Osborne's mad plans - reasons that spoke of vested, rather than national, interests. Arup has just been awarded a major rail contract by the government. Another outstanding piece of Liberal Conspiracy work told us that BT's government contracts had just been renewed and deals done on government contracts with Microsoft and AVEVA.

2) I do my best to spend my money with ethical businesses.

Companies that support the CSR are failed corporate citizens. They back an ideological programme of cuts that will throw thousands out of work and onto the mercy of a welfare system that itself will barely exist. In private, they have no suggestions for growth. In public, they're collaborators who run a strong second line in denial. I would no more spend my money with them than I would with companies that beat t-shirts out of child workers in Bangladesh.

I am a consumer. I have money to spend. I will no longer do business with the retailers who appeared on that list. Fair trade begins at home.

Here's the list, with the retailers I regularly use at the top. Vodafone is in a special mentions category. They weren't signatories to the Telegraph letter, but I'm guessing Osborne takes their support as written. I'll never darken their door again anyway.


Next
ASDA
Microsoft UK
Mothercare
Carphone Warehouse Group, TalkTalk Telecom Group
Alliance Boots
Marks & Spencer
Ocado
Dunelm Group
L.K. Bennett
Kingfisher
SSL International, moneysupermarket.com, Britvic
Towergate
Dhillon Group
Arup
ARM Holdings
GlaxoSmithKline
Reed Elsevier
Tullow Oil
UMECO
Prestbury Group
BT Group
MITIE Group
Inmarsat; Non-Executive Director lovefilms.com, The Betting Group
Hammerson
AVEVA
ASOS
Inmarsat
Fuller, Smith and Turner
Veetee
Sage
Diageo
Robert Walters
Harvey Nichols
Expansys, Stonehaven Associates, Yell Group