Islington Farmers Market Shocker

Shocking news from Nick Cohen:

To live the North London cliché, to penetrate to the very heart of La Islington Profonde, I go every week to the farmers’ market.
The scent of righteousness fills my nose as I sniff the organic vegetables. A glow of moral rectitude brightens my cheeks as I pay rather a lot for the free-range sausages.
Until this week, that is, when visibly desperate managers all but ordered shoppers to sign letters pleading with Islington Council to allow the market to stay open. Somewhat embarrassingly, it appears to have been trading without planning permission.
I’m not sure if Islingtonians can cope with the ignominy. There are dodgy geezers buying fake Rolexes in Kilburn car-boot sales who are more legit than we are.

I would have thought a trading licence is more important than planning permission for a market, but what do I know?

Anyway, I'm sure this problem will soon be addressed and those North London, pot-smoking, anti-war, right-on, Labour voting pansies will be able to buy their soon-to-be-rotten apples with the peace of mind that they're not breaking the law.  If it isn't sorted, they can always order an organic box or visit gourmet central, Marylebone.

Comments

[Tana]

How much of your post is facetiousness? It's hard to gauge across the ocean, knowing the droll British wit. Because you know, I don't smoke pot anymore, but everything else...c'est moi.

[Silverbrow]

There is indeed an element of irony in there. As an area of London, Islington is famous for being very right-on and gets a lot of stick accordingly.

Tony Blair lived there prior to becoming PM. Supposedly a deal that led to his becoming Labour party leader was made, with Gordon Brown (now Chancellor) in a restaurant in Islington called Granita.

In the UK farmers markets, especially in big cities, are still considered trendy, they are not the norm. Many would consider it typical that Islington had a farmers market - which explains Nick Cohen's self-effacing quote.

For many, Islington is typified by the left leaning newspaper The Guardian. Below is a link to a rather amusing post from PooterGeek that gets to the heart of the Islingtonians position.

http://www.pootergeek.com/index.php?p=484