Translate

Wednesday 5 August 2009

Oxfam Acting Against the British National Interest

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/5967272/Oxfam-damages-small-independent-bookshops-booksellers-claim.html


http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=489267&in_page_id=2

So, the rest of the world is to be get British money while independent British booksellers are being closed down because they are being undercut by bleeding heart charities for overseas, are they?

"And of course, all the money raised from the sale of books through Oxfam's shops goes to help our lifesaving work around the world, " said Suzy Smith, Oxfam books project manager.

Anyone who thinks that the local BNP ought to be demonstrating outside the Oxfam Shop in Salisbury should get in touch with Michael Simpkins, their local organiser, whose blog is at http://michaelsimpkins.blogspot.com/

4 comments:

Jeff Marshall said...

This is a storm in a teacup.

1. Second-hand booksellers worth their salt are far more knowledgeable about books than the volunteers in Oxfam shops.

2. The 80% reduction in business rates that benefits these shops would apply equally to any other charity - Age Concern, for example, which helps elderly people in the UK.

3. Oxfam has 130 bookselling outlets in the whole of Britain. This hardly puts it in the Tesco league.

4. Surely people are entitled to donate to whatever charity they wish. Recently I gave several piles of old books to the Spitalfields Crypt Trust which helps the East End homeless. Its small number of local shops operate in exactly the same manner as Oxfam.

5. The BNP is opposed to large-scale immigration which has been a force for evil in the UK.

However, why it should be opposed to people voluntarily making donations to the world's poor, I fail to understand.

It is far better that these people be encouraged to stay in their own countries, surely.

Claire Khaw said...

I suppose it would be just a storm in a teacup if it is not *your* bookshop that has had to close and you are not an independent bookseller being forced to close.

I also note that you can only think in terms of immigration and that your mind does not quite engage when it comes to such peripheral matters as small independent booksellers going out of business because of bleeding heart do-gooders.

So it is official then: "The BNP does not care about small independent booksellers."

That is fair enough. Most people don't think any of you read much anyway.

Yes, I do feel quite idiotic about raising the subject now.

Storm in a teacup, as you say.

Jeff Marshall said...

No need to be rude.

Anyway I do not necessarily speak for others in the BNP who may be enthused by your idea for all I know.

The fact is that charity shops only compete with second-hand booksellers, not with independent sellers of new books.

So this scarcely represents a wholesale assault on the independent bookselling sector.

Moreover, second-hand bookshops have been in decline for some considerable time (as the Telegraph article points out).

This decline is likely to have far more to do with recent technological developments - such as the cheapness of books bought over the internet - as with direct competition with Oxfam.

Finally I was arguing for people's right to contribute their books - or their money - to whatever charity they choose - including international charities, if they so desire.

This is a matter of personal freedom, surely.

But perhaps you are opposed to people being allowed to exercise such freedom of choice.

Claire Khaw said...

It was just a propaganda opportunity to show that the BNP cares about independent booksellers, Jeff.

It would give the impression that you lot are a literate, book-reading, book-loving bunch, who care about *local* (haha!) shops as well as cocking a snook at organisations run by do-gooding bleeding hearts who don't even pay the staff who run their shops any wages.

Did I say "Close Oxfam down"?

I said stage a demo to show you care about books and booksellers.

If people want to give all their hard-earned, hard-taxed money to an organisation that gives money to third worlders who are always asking for more handouts when this country is heading to that very same hell, then that is their business, as you quite rightly say.

I have a very good local bookshop and I would care *very much indeed* if it was closed down by any local Oxfam shop with its bric a brac and second hand book collection.

Vincent Bruno is dismayed to be told that theocracy is necessary to make white people marry again

https://t.co/k5DOSS5dv4 — Real Vincent Bruno (@RealVinBruno) March 27, 2024 10:00  Gender relations 12:00  Anthony Trollope 14:00  Being bot...