LOL

No, Jonathan Ross actually.

You been hanging out with Boris? What has table tennis got to do with Coffee? Did you meet him while in Beijing during the Olympics when he gave that speech? Did you go to the Shanghai branch of Starbucks to discuss Whiff Whaff?

Too right. We don’t have a local Starbucks, but Caffè Nero is no better. I’m more a pot of tea and a cheese scone man myself.

you mean look down on the whiff-whaff?

Still, it is the only public place where you can read the Sun and feel highbrow.

What we need is good honest value.

The last time I went into Starbucks, they were asking me to pay more because I wanted fairtrade. That should be enough of an indication of where they really stand.

So it didn’t surprise me when I heard the report that they were going fairtrade to bolster their declining business. It wont work.

The coffee tasted the same in Shanghai as it did here -overpriced and nothing special. And their prices for pretentious biscuits are unbelievable.

read nef’s clone town reports – the standardisation of britain’s towns is appalling. at least in london here and there you have some diversity. thank god for stokey and places like that.

we need to think bigger than what goes into the damn coffee-cup.

and by the way, starbucks is terrible for your health – only silly Americans would drink coffee in those sizes of cups. in the go as well!

mind you stocking ‘fair trade’ coffee is a good start, but not the only index of ethical behaviour. they’re not ‘fairly’ trading with respect to london’s independent coffee shops. But we’re seeing lots of people refuse to go into a boring starbucks and go into a ‘local’ cafe – so that’s good.