Not on display ?
UPDATE : Many thanks to Will Straw at Left Foot Forward for featuring this issue, and linking back. Shopkeeper’s Labour “boycott” up in flames
Received an alert via Twitter early this morning from BBCpolitics : Newsagents threaten to boycott the Labour Party at the next general election if legislation bans them fro… ( the 3 dots are theirs – Twitter does that sometimes !)
Looking at the website that the link points to, this is about the proposed debate in parliament on Monday regarding cigarette advertising – which also covers cigarette vending machines by the way which are apparently a key source of cigarettes for under age smokers (not sure how they get into pubs if can’t buy cigarettes mind, but I digress)
There isn’t actually a mention of a boycott though – or a firm source for the story other than “a spokesman” for the The National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN) who says that should legislation ban the open display of cigarettes “it will be very bad news for Gordon Brown”
One can understand the concern of people who feel that legislation may threaten their trade, and the statement on NFRN’s website NFRN Online sets out their case reasonably eloquently. Similarly their advert in The Times on Friday campaigns in a direct way urging MP’s to vote against proposed legislation.
Nowhere do they mention ‘boycotting’ the Labour Party though. Not at all.
What exactly does ‘boycotting’ a political party mean anyway ?
If it means not voting for them then that’s their choice. Does it mean not selling papers that support Labour ? Who knows. They aren’t threatening it though so lets not waste our time worrying – unless of course they change their mind on “The Politics Show” later this morning – because this “news” story isn’t really a news story at all – it’s a trail for a BBC TV show.
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