Madness

At the risk of sounding like Victor Meldrew, I just can't believe IT!

Did you see the news last night? A new store opened on Oxford Street and the police had to be called in to control the crowd. I thought it must be a really special designer store and that the people who had camped overnight to be the very first in hoped for amazing bargains. No, it was a new branch of Primark!!

What is going on? You can go to Primark in almost any high street and buy T-shirts for £3. They are likely to be made in a sweatshop and be environmentally damaging (apart from a token couple of ranges that they sell as ethically traded - as if that makes it all okay, like Nestle introducing a fair trade coffee - they don't get the point, if they include a 'fair trade' version, that just proves the rest is not fairly traded. Stop it, I cry.)

Anyway, back to Primark - I think what happened on Oxford street epitamises what No New Shoes is about. We are trying to swim against a tide of shopping for shopping's sake, where the measure of success is how cheaply you get the work of another human being.

I have a shopping list (suprisingly short) for the end of NNS - 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of work trousers, 1 new lipstick and a packet of cotton wool balls. I won't be camping on Oxford street waiting to get them at the cheapest possible price - because if nothing else this Lent, I've rediscovered that there is more to life!

EPILOGUE I hope that you have time to pause this Good Friday (when the shops should be shut!) to remember the man who gave his whole life so that we might know the real cost of love.