A huge question.

I’ve replied at some length here:

http://www.poliblogs.co.uk/blog/2007/10/does-google-have-too-much-power-for-our-comfort/

Matt

“are they [other Tesco] reachable if you don’t drive” Yes. Ten minute walk. Four minute bike ride.

“Sainsbury’s is OK apparently” well there isn’t a sainsbury on Mill Road either. Mill Road is not completely chains free – but its getting close.

Quasar9 – I’m very hopeful that the libdem run council will reject these proposals as we now have the official support of the cllrs and the MP plus the Labour opposition cllrs also support the campaign (although their parliamentary candidate is uncharacteristically quiet on this one). There are no Tory councillors in Cambridge so I don’t know what the local Tory party’s position is on this.

The elected cllrs know which side their bread is buttered on, but unfortunately unelected council officials will also have a say in this

David – it’s interesting that you say that my arguments could be used as a justification for “whites only” and such like but I think that would only stand up if I felt this was the only important part of the argument.

One of the very important aspects to this campaign specifically is its welcoming of diversity and pluralism in the community. It is not a campaign to preserve some mythical little england but one that is attempting to defend this conjunction of the old and new communities. This is what makes Mill Road so special. In my opinion its important to take arguments in context.

I agree however that one important and difficult democratic question is that of the balance between the rights of minorities and the will of the majority. However, it is only with a very special kind of squint can we view Tesco as a victimised minority. In fact it is the Mill Road community that is the David to its Goliath, and as such I’m happy for the small community to be getting its way for once.

One commentator asks “Do they offer the range, the prices and the convenience available at Tescos?” The answer can be seen at the campaign website where we did a price comparision and discovered that contrary to popular opinion tesco *express* is actually more expensive than the shop in the local community and certainly does not have the range available in Mill Road (but then again where does?)

What Tesco have is financial muscle not available to local traders and the ability to absorb losses in order to drive out of business local competition. We don’t want to get to that stage.

“I was glad to leave Cambridge, where I lived and worked for a few years. It has such a high proportion of underemployed Statist busybodies (aka academics and their often even more sanctimonious spouses) that I spent too much of my working life as a lawyer filing planning objections to any project that might actually improve the lives of the ungowned without the marbled halls.

As a libertarian who sees no earthly reason why the state should dictate what people do on their own land, I found it an unpleasantly negative and destructive way to make a living. I found the Cromwellian-Marxist, bicycle-calved, holier-than-thou clients deeply disturbing too. I worry about them poisoning the mind of my beloved daughter, currently studying there. She tells me it is still every bit the KGB Staff College so lovingly depicted by its BBC graduates in “Cambridge Spies.�

Couldn’t have put it better myself.

Far too many freeloaders in the UK. Perhaps the surge of immigration will get them off their pathetic arses.