A bigger issue

A shopping trip to town was never complete without a stop off in Fopp records, and I can't recall ever going in there and coming out empty handed, the store has pretty much single-handidly replaced my aging LP & cassette collection with cheap re-issue CD's.

But for some reason, new release CD's always seemed more expensive than even the big stores (HMV, Virgin), while Selectadisc is still the independent store of choice.

Because of the struggle against the bigger shops and the rise of internet downloads, Fopp has struggled and has today closed its doors.

A pain for the customer, but a bigger worry for the staff, told by e-mail yesterday that they were out of work, and wouldn't be getting paid for their previous month's work. While I've now got to find a couple of Clash re-issues, they've got to find money for mortgages, rent, bills etc.

Mr Brown may have walked into Number 10 this week unopposed, but with the Post Office dispute, and now workers effectively illegally sacked without pay, he may be walking into the kind of labour troubles which blighted the Labour government in the late 70's.