Cereal cafe: Owner tells of 'witch hunt' that pelted windows with cereal/paint

[Monoriu]

Is there any kind of for-profit retail place that doesn't mark up the price of its goods?  It is for consumers to say if the price is too high.  If the price is indeed too high, they'll go out of business. 

[Valmy]

Is there any kind of for-profit retail place that doesn't mark up the price of its goods?  It is for consumers to say if the price is too high.  If the price is indeed too high, they'll go out of business. 

Does not mean we cannot mock and deride the business and the customers. One born every minute and all that. Not that I am necessarily talking about this bar, I don't know what culinary glories they were with those cereals.

[Monoriu]

Is there any kind of for-profit retail place that doesn't mark up the price of its goods?  It is for consumers to say if the price is too high.  If the price is indeed too high, they'll go out of business. 

Does not mean we cannot mock and deride the business and the customers. One born every minute and all that. Not that I am necessarily talking about this bar, I don't know what culinary glories they were with those cereals.

I have never heard of a cereal cafe prior to this thread.  I certainly won't go to this kind of place, but I can see the value to people who like cereals and want to try out different flavours.

[Eddie Teach]

I'm definitely supporting the Captain Crunch Crew.  They've done nothing wrong and the other group has wank written all over them.

They should go out of business because their concept is dumb.

That doesn't mean I support the vandals, who should be arrested.

[Razgovory]

link=topic=13323.msg911484#msg911484 date=1443390530quote author=garbon link=topic=13323.msg911481#msg911481 date=1443390403]
[
Actions like say, performing in a gay bar?

Homosexuality isn't a big deal for the far right. In fact they tend to find themselves with an awkwardly pro gay position due to the Muslims being so anti gay.

But what I meant was think about it seriously.
You've an angry rabble attacking the little guy. A small shop owned by two working class Irish brothers. Why? Because they are outsiders. They are on the visible front lines of the demographic changes happening in the area. They've absolutely nothing to do with the big picture. They're just the helpless innocent guys trying to make a bit of money for themselves.
I honestly fail to see how this is different to when neo nazis attack a small asian owned shop.

Surely the proper thing to do for angry leftists would be to attack an up market chain shop or the property developers or policy makers contributing to this change. Not the little guy just because he isn't from around here.

You have a bizarre view of leftism.  The ideological tone doesn't change because of the "size" of the victim.  It's the motive that counts.  If a mob murders a man because he is real estate mogul and they are protesting his "economic crimes", I'd say they are part of your loopy European left.  If the man who is murdered also happens to be a Jamaican immigrant that doesn't automatically make it a Neo-Nazi act.  Now, if the mob kills him because he's a filthy wog threatening the racial purity of the community I'd say it was a Neo-Nazi thing

Also Anti-gentrification is abhorrent.  It's the romanticism of poverty and slums.

[derspiess]

Also Anti-gentrification is abhorrent.  It's the romanticism of poverty and slums.

Yeah, I don't get this.  Heaven forbid we try to redevelop a section of town and make it safe and pleasant.

[frunk]

Also Anti-gentrification is abhorrent.  It's the romanticism of poverty and slums.

I think that somehow people decouple the price of housing from how safe and clean it is.  Yes, dangerous places are frequently cheaper, removing the danger means prices will go up.  The problem isn't the cost, it's your inability to earn more to pay for it (which may or may not be your fault).

[Richard Hakluyt]

The rabble causing the disturbance are a bunch called Class War btw. I had a glance at their website and they have a "Women's Death Brigade" 

I'm curious whether they are true locals or university tossers that got in before the place started gentrifying.

Based on my very limited knowledge of Cockneys (basically a few gangster movies) they don't seem like the kind of folk to start up an organization called Class War with an auxiliary Women's Death Brigade.

Yes, they are pretty pragmatic people. Most of them have gravitated from the old East End in a NE direction over the past 60 years, moving to suburbs like Chingford or into Essex. You may have heard jokes and putdowns about Essex people, these can be amusing but are based on snobbery - these dreadful working-class people have done well for themselves, have above-average incomes, often vote Tory, retain their vulgar ways and are white - the left finds that combination impossible to forgive.

The shopowners are working-class lads from Belfast, but I guess that Irish (maybe they are protestant Irish?) just isn't black enough to engage the sympathies of the bien-pensant left.

[Admiral Yi]

Ah, so Essex girls are Cockneys made good?

[Richard Hakluyt]

Ah, so Essex girls are Cockneys made good?

Yeah, not rich but have moved from poverty in East London slums to suburban comfort in Essex in two or three generations.

[Josquius]

link=topic=13323.msg911484#msg911484 date=1443390530quote author=garbon link=topic=13323.msg911481#msg911481 date=1443390403]
[
Actions like say, performing in a gay bar?

Homosexuality isn't a big deal for the far right. In fact they tend to find themselves with an awkwardly pro gay position due to the Muslims being so anti gay.

But what I meant was think about it seriously.
You've an angry rabble attacking the little guy. A small shop owned by two working class Irish brothers. Why? Because they are outsiders. They are on the visible front lines of the demographic changes happening in the area. They've absolutely nothing to do with the big picture. They're just the helpless innocent guys trying to make a bit of money for themselves.
I honestly fail to see how this is different to when neo nazis attack a small asian owned shop.

Surely the proper thing to do for angry leftists would be to attack an up market chain shop or the property developers or policy makers contributing to this change. Not the little guy just because he isn't from around here.

You have a bizarre view of leftism.  The ideological tone doesn't change because of the "size" of the victim.  It's the motive that counts.  If a mob murders a man because he is real estate mogul and they are protesting his "economic crimes", I'd say they are part of your loopy European left.  If the man who is murdered also happens to be a Jamaican immigrant that doesn't automatically make it a Neo-Nazi act.  Now, if the mob kills him because he's a filthy wog threatening the racial purity of the community I'd say it was a Neo-Nazi thing

Also Anti-gentrification is abhorrent.  It's the romanticism of poverty and slums.

However when the entire motive is "you're an outsider changing the demographic makeup of our area"....

[Tamas]

Tyr you are 100%  right in terms of all of these people being frustrated aggressive losers, essentially the same.

But they did find different ideological justification to take out their frustrations on others.

[garbon]

However when the entire motive is "you're an outsider changing the demographic makeup of our area"....

Except that the protest doesn't seem have much to do with the identity of the store owners - just that they are running a business than the protesters view as unsavory/part of a trend that prices them (or at least some of them) out of the neighborhood.

While I don't have any sympathy for this protest, there's something legitimate about the following blurb from one of the protesters that is a far cry from the community vs. outsiders that you want to paint this as.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/27/shoreditch-cereal-cafe-targeted-by-anti-gentrification-protesters

Esther Planas Balduz, 55, an artist who attended the protest after hearing about it on Facebook, said she supported the cause because she was evicted from her home of seven years when her rent doubled last year.

"I've lived in Shoreditch for 17 years and it's appalling what's been going on. Its our fault, artists like me go to these kind of areas, then the architects follow, the developers, the hipsters etc," Balduz said. "The problem is social cleansing. There are no protections for us. The law does not protect us, only the greedy landowners."

Balduz said the protest seemed "more like a punk carnival" and hoped it would open up debate on the issue of gentrification. "Even if a few became a bit aggressive, it was really less aggressive than the masses of drunks I have to cope with every weekend in the area," she said.

[Richard Hakluyt]

As ever we return to the basic problem, in the UK household formation is running at something like 250,000 a year and house building barely exceeds 100,000 units a year. This causes moderate problems in provincial places like Preston but is horrendous in London and the South-East. Lefties can blame gentrification and the right can blame immigration, but the essential problem is insufficient construction.

I used to live in that area back in the late 1970s with a couple of nurses  , my share of the rent was £5 a week. But at the time the cockneys were making their way north-eastwards, the Jews had long gone, the Bangladeshis had not yet arrived and London had a declining population. It is a brilliant area to live in btw, I could never fathom its lack of popularity back then.

[Gups]

Ah, so Essex girls are Cockneys made good?

Maybe a generation or two ago. The big migration from the East End to the suburbs and Essex took place between the 60s and 80s (ditto from south-east London to Kent). Much the same as happened in several big US cities.