Ethical Business Pioneer Roddick

I don't usually do obituaries or tributes, but since a precedent was set (Lord Deedes) while the reins for this blog were handed over during my recent Venetian break, I thought I would reproduce a Church Times interview of relevance to this blog's themes with Body Shop founder and Fair Trade supporter, Dame Anita Roddick, who died yesterday aged 64 after a major brain haemorrhage. I particularly commend the final two paragraphs to you:

Speaking to the Church Times, ahead of coming to the Festival in 2004 for the second year running, Dame Anita said: “What’s wonderful about being my age is having to face your prejudices."

And she continued: "I had no idea how big Greenbelt was. I had no idea how organised it was; how free it was; how joyful it was. And I had no idea that there was such a strong activist, trade justice plank in its platform."

“It’s really hard, when you have had your antennae up for most of these movements, to have completely ignored it. I have fallen for the zeitgeist that says anybody who has a religious inclination has no sense of rationale or intellectual understanding and therefore should be dismissed."

“I am cheering the Greenbelt festival from the top of every bloody mountain…for me, it’s like a heartbeat. And it’s youth. I’m ashamed of my bloody prejudices, but I’m delighted to be a convert. I find it wonderful.”

Source: Greenbelt Festivals

Deedes - a gentleman, a scholar

On the day that we learn of the passing of Lord Deedes, an extraordinary journalist and commentator, I am struck by the chasm between his history of words, and the likely words of Tony Blair.

Whilst Bill Deedes is proven beyond compare as a writer of eloquence, insightfulness, and care, we are now faced with a bidding war over the memoirs of an ex-prime minister whose sought-for 'legacy' failed to materialise in reality, and therefore now needs to be created in a fact-fiction collaboration.

Is it really necessary for us all to relive once again the past ten years of presidential presumption, and the side-lining of parliament? Are we likely to learn anything more than some insider gossip of a government that perpetuates the myth that legislation changes hearts and minds? And does the UK really benefit from the previous prime minister, from a now un-elected and un-accountable position, writing about important events that are bound to include the current prime minister, and based on their stormy relationships, in a possibly not too rosy light?

I'm unconvinced, (as you might be able to tell), about the appeal of such memoirs. I'd much rather be directed to a file of articles by W F Deedes, from which I am likely to learn much more about political institutions, leadership - and the manners of a gentleman and a scholar.