The trouble with purity

I try to do what I consider to be the right thing when it turns to being ethical and having principles, but each time I am reminded that I am not pure is a very uncomfortable experience. I don’t always need to reminded either because I am aware of my lapses. What about my personal decision to boycott Nescafe because of the Nestle baby milk scandal, or their union-busting policies? And what if I wanted to fly somewhere, perhaps to the Middle East or even Australia? Would I boycott Emirates airways, owned by the UAE and its highly dubious human rights record and unfavourable treatment of women? Or if I went to watch Bristol City, god forbid, or any to the other sporting clubs who fall within Bristol Sport, in which organisation Guernsey resident Steven Lansdown has wide interests? But then, if I attack Mr Lansdown for his tax arrangements, then have I always been whiter than white in the tax department? Yes, it is hard to be pure. And then there is Rupert Murdoch.

I regard Murdoch as one of the most pernicious, divisive bullies who is building a worldwide media monopoly, peddling a right wing brand of politics. His newspapers are, without exception, disciples of unqualified free market economics, despising the state and its organs and campaigning to dismantle them. A major union buster, Murdoch is a most dangerous threat to free speech and what little remains of the free press. Shouldn’t I boycott anything Murdoch does too, because at the moment I don’t.

I do not pay a monthly subscription to Murdoch’s Sky TV, but I do pay a small fortune to Richard Branson’s Virgin media, which then passes on a large wedge to Murdoch’s Sky. So it is not good enough for me to pretend I don’t actually pay Sky and pay Virgin instead because I pay both. I am guilty and I feel more than slightly guilty too. I don’t care too much about the football on Sky (unless Liverpool are playing) and I could live without it. But I would struggle to live without the Rugby League coverage and the golf to which I am hopelessly addicted. With each passing Sun front page headline and editorial, I feel increasingly queasy but what will finally see me stop my subscription will be the cost. When the obscenity of the next Premier League deal kicks in and Murdoch passes on the cost to subscribers, I will have a decision to make and it may well be quite an easy one.

I could find good reasons to boycott just about every newspaper, possibly including the Guardian which is the only one not owned by a corporation or rich individuals, but the main reason I don’t buy them is they are mostly crap. The poisonous political narrative of the Sun, Mail, Express, Times, Telegraph and Star is enough for me not to spend my money on them, not to mention columnists like Hopkins, Littlejohn and Clarkson, but I don’t much enjoy the overall content either. I used to buy the Sunday Times years ago, but I always found it more than slightly bonkers. And I haven’t bought the Independent (it isn’t) since they urged readers to vote Tory last May. That’s more me being petty and spiteful, I think, but it makes me feel better.

Do I stop shopping in Asda because of their terrible pay rates, even though they are quite nice to work for, and should I boycott Sports Direct because of Mike Ashley and the appalling way he treats his workers? And if I buy my cheap casual clothing from someone else other than Sports Direct, where else do I go? Most of the others are non or de-unionised too and pay rocket bottom wages. Do I stop buying pizzas from the nine delivery service up the road because they pay the minimum possible wages to their staff and work them into the ground? I still wince at buying products from South Africa, even though apartheid, at least politically but not necessarily economically, has long ended and Nelson Mandela wanted us to visit his country and spend money there. And I make a point of not going on holiday to so-called islamic countries, even so called secular Turkey, because I do not approve of the way women are told to live their lives.

I suppose the best I can do is my little bit, but Rupert Murdoch’s Sky subscription is the one that, when I am reminded of it, makes me shift uneasily in my armchair. What I cannot suggest when it comes to ethics and principles is that I am always on the moral high ground and I can be as hypocritical as the next woman and man when the need or desire arises.

Now I have to stop here because I am expecting a delivery from Amazon. Oh, wait a minute…