nick cartwright

I have a love/hate relationship with supermarkets.  Regular readers of my blog will recall my unresolved falling out with Tesco because they couldn’t tell me the provenance of their chorizo whilst the local butcher can tell me which farm my chops come from and promise it was slaughtered properly because he did it in the abattoir out the back; however he isn’t open in the evenings when I get back from work and he doesn’t sell his chicken breasts with an orange crumb and a chive and garlic butter centre to be placed in a preheated oven 20 minutes before I wish to eat.  Similarly yesterday was a day of contrasts, after feeding the chickens expensive organic veg that had gone over I cancelled our veg box order but then taken by the urge to put something nutritious inside the toddler whipped up salt and pepper squid with a homemade tomato sauce and rice – he watched on excitedly as I prepared the squid, identifying eyes, mouths and tentacles then wolfed down everything I’d prepared and demanded more off my plate – like me he favours the tentacles over the bodies.

Then another argument with Tesco, this time over the phone because over TV has broken, this has been going on for some time and finally they gave me a code to get an exchange from our local branch – this was not easy as they didn’t have the exact model etc… but to avoid sharing the tedium that defined two hours of our evening the conclusion was I stormed out of Tesco vowing never to go back, although with a new TV.  This vow has now taken on a life of its own and I have decided that the toddler and I are going to try to live without supermarkets to see how feasible it is.  I know its possible, I relied on the food cooperative in Reading when we lived there and could have lived from the products from small local retailers when we lived in Hitchin had I been free to shop 10-4 Mon-Fri, not forgetting half-day closing on Wed.  What I want to find out is that is it feasible for me, a busy, working, single Dad to single-handedly raise a toddler, earn enough to pay the rent and bills and subsist without using a supermarket.  Initially it sounds  easy, there’s the market for veg or I could reinstate our organic box delivery, the butchers is only a 15 minute walk away and this mad idea has taken hold after the toddler is out of nappies but what about foil and my 3-for-a-tenner red wine addiction and I do have a weakness for grabbing a frozen pizza if I’m coming home from work late.  I wrestled with ideas when I should have been sleeping and think these issues can be resolved, I need a freezer – I gave ours away after it became full of ice cream and pizza to encourage healthy living but now I need to replace a pizza addiction with homemade ready meals I can ping-ping and I need people to support me with ideas – does anyone know an ethical alternative to foil?

Before I had the opportunity to fully consider this, and therefore back out, I jumped in with both feet.   After dropping the toddler at preschool I drove to our local market town and bought veg from the market stall and walked to the independent deli and wine shop, they said they didn’t open until 9:30 so I took a wonder round the charity shop, I bought the toddler a present – many of his toys and our clothes will be coming from here for the duration of this experiment.  I returned to the deli where I waited until 9:45 for them to open, they had no spaghetti because the delivery is later today and their wine expert wasn’t around to advise on ‘affordable yet drinkable’, reflecting that the new Sainsburys may not be the only thing to kill this town – as the protest poster in the window claimed it would – I brought a bottle of red wine for £6.15 and went to the bakery for cake.  In the spirit of the project I consulted a local IT specialist, rather than a big online provider, and bashed out ideas while sharing the cake, very soon you will able to titter as I fail to survive without the support of a major supermarket chain by following my antics on www.livingwithouttesco.com

It has been nearly a month I underwent laser eye surgery and if I’m honest I’m still feeling a little underwhelmed.  I accept that I hadn’t marshalled my expectations properly and that I was never going to be running into the street shouting ‘I can see’ after some messiah like figure had waved his magic wand.  Had they been able to see my eyes – I was squinting against the agony of sunlight hitting my dilated pupils - the anticipated hoards of swooning women would have been put off by the severe bruising which gave the appearance that my eyeballs themselves were bleeding.  The more persistent nymphs within the hoard would have been frustrated by my constant nipping to the loo to administer the regimen of eye drops (steroids, antibiotics and synthetic tears).   Had I succeeded in seducing anyone the magic of the moment may have been ruined by the Biggles-esque special eye mask I am meant to be wearing to bed or the fact that I am prohibited from knocking my eyes or engaging in vigorous physical activity – the after-care leaflet doesn’t mention motorboating but I think it would be inadvisable.  You may think that I’m shallow, but I didn’t have an invasive medical procedure just to improve my chances of getting laid, in fact all my female friends who ventured an opinion said I looked good with glasses.  I want to be able to take the toddler swimming without squinting, wear a motorbike helmet without it being specially designed for glasses and play squash with better peripheral vision.

I sat in the waiting area, reading the consent forms and the woman next to me engaged me in nervous chat, I mentioned something about the suction cup they attach to the eyeball to stop it moving and she immediately stopped me, she told me she had signed the paperwork without reading it and has asked the surgeon not to tell her what was happening, so much for informed consent.  I on the other hand was reading everything and asking lots of questions, I like control and handing over control to anyone without knowing exactly what’s happening induces panic.  The surgeon looked at the scan they had taken of my eye and told the nurse that they needed to change the procedure I had signed up for, there was some patter about calling head office and she scurried off.  I was returned to the waiting room were I was informed that I had flat corneas so it was too risky to create flaps using a mechanical blade and that I would need the more expensive laser created flaps, I was told that there all the problems of flat corneas were eliminated in the laser procedure.  The change would normally cost £600 but lo and behold she’d spoken to head office and under the circumstances they would offer me a once in a lifetime, never to be repeated, double discount offer, first halving the fee then knocking an additional £100 off.  I asked her to quantify risks, she said they weren’t quantifiable, the surgeon wouldn’t do the procedure I’d been signed up to so either I could leave or pay.  Having driven to Norwich, taken time away from work, asked my sister to take time off so she could look after the toddler backing out wasn’t an option and reluctantly I signed the amended credit agreement.  The procedure itself I hated, I was lying down, eyes pinned open with heavy machinery close to my face and no real idea what was going on.  They had difficulty attaching the suction cup to my right eye, taking four attempts and bruising the area around the tear duct and  I could see the small wire tool they were manipulating the flaps of cornea with and feel it being moved around, the lasers themselves made the eyes feel warm.  Overall there was nothing terribly wrong but the claustrophobia and loss of control were causing me to hyperventilate, but this was for less than 10 minutes then I was back in the waiting room with tea and a biscuit.

I returned the following day for what was billed to be one of three follow-up appointments, this was the Saturday.  Because of the excessive swelling caused, one optometrist explained by elevating my corneas, I had to be seen again in Norwich on Sunday, on Sunday evening I had a worried answerphone message telling me to get to Cambridge as early as possible on Monday morning, after a lost nights sleep I was told I still had swelling the regimen of eye-drops was again increased.  Tuesday it was Bexleyheath, Thursday it was Leicester and on Friday Cambridge to be seen by an eye surgeon – by this stage the inclusions causing the swelling had gone and I was given a week’s leave from optometrists.  A fortnight ago I was seen in Bluewater and the swelling had gone completely, I was given different eye drops and a night cream to address issues with dryness.  I need to call to make an appointment to be seen tomorrow.  The assiduous amongst you will have noticed the first mention of elevating my corneas, the procedure that carried the extra risk of swelling, was not mentioned in my blog until after the surgery, this is because it wasn’t mentioned on the consent form or by the staff until after the event – draw your own conclusions…

I am still on a regimen of eyedrops, my eyes are still dry and look like they’re bleeding but I can see without glasses – would I have it done again?  No.

Someone went to all the trouble to read my past blogs and fill out my contact form to let me know they “suck”.  As I hadn’t blogged in a very long time this served as a good reminder to write some more stuff, after all the only thing worst than being told your blog sucks is not having anyone read it all.

Tescos are still ignoring me (see previous blogs) so that’s on hold until I get around to writing to the ASA.  In fact there’s a lot on that back burner at the moment as work got manic just as the sun came out and everything went from dormant to overgrown, except the allotment because at that point it didn’t exist – it’s still 10% dug over, 90% grass and nettles.  There are successes in our garden, overlooking the lawn mower which is currently in pieces in the middle of our ‘meadow’ the chickens are happy and laying well, the potatoes we’re growing in tyre stacks seem to be doing great and I’ve built the scramble wall with the slide and the scaffold for the swings is on order, the playground is for the toddler obviously ;op.  Beyond the garden the world seems to have gone to shit though – apparently I was pretty much alone in voting yes to AV and I also seem to be pretty much alone in not thinking that the extra-juridical assassination of Bin Laden is a reason for street parties.  However I wasn’t alone in feeling disconcerted in the way laser eye treatment was sold to me, I left the consultation barely able to see feeling like I was making a decision about buying a used care, not a medical procedure and thinking ‘I must blog this’.  I am having treatment with Optical Express, the same company that Watchdog ran their headline story on last week, stealing my thunder.    What Anne Robinson didn’t do however was join the dots linking these sales techniques with the private sector hawking medical treatment more broadly.  I was asked to make decisions about what I felt was the medical procedure that best suited my clinical needs with the price list in front of me, in the optometrist’s ’clinical’ judgement was that the most expensive options in all aspects of the treatment were best for me as it would leave me with eyesight good enough to fly missions for NASA.  As I doubted I could afford the most expensive treatment options let alone the childcare costs to leave me free to take part in the next mission to Mars I opted for the cheapest option in all cases – my eyeballs will be sliced with a mechanical knife rather than a laser beam and the lens reshaped to my prescription, rather than 240 prescriptions taken at separate points on the eyeball.  Having made my medical decisions purely on economic grounds I was whisked away to chat to one of the sales team and it took an iron-will to leave without being separated from a hefty deposit there and then.  As I suspected within 24 hours the manager of the store herself had called me back and was offering discounts, 10% off the bat and nearly 20% when I ummed and ahhed for a few minutes longer.  Then came the question of financing, apparently this had to be discussed in person.  I recalled trying to buy a second-hand motorbike on finance once, I managed to negotiate a hefty chunk off the price of the bike and then noticed the details of the finance changed so the overall price was the same, I changed tack and renegotiated the finance deal and lo and behold the price of the bike rocketed – after 3 hours I had half a dozen different deals in front of me all of which boiled down to me paying £3500 for a bike over 5 years that was worth about £2000, I felt another session with the sales woman in Leicester might be a similar exercise so I insisted on doing this over the phone and eventually the impossible became remarkably easy.  I am going under the mechanical knife on Friday so this time next week I will either be cheering the toddler up by permanently sporting a pirate-esque eye patch or, if the saleswoman is right and the procedure is 99.9% safe, chances are I will be able to see, unaided, and properly for the first time in my life.  I want to be excited but there are clouds hanging over this, the first is I feel like this has all become horribly about the money and my eyes are just a salesman’s ‘in’ to selling me stuff and then the finance to buy the stuff and the second is that the last time I underwent a ‘safe’ medical procedure I woke up on life-support with my Dad holding my hand expecting to be saying goodbye to his first-born.  If the Tory plans to pay private providers to do the job of the NHS, with doctors purchasing treatment with limited resources, realises itself this is what we could all be expecting from healthcare.  I wonder how much cheaper a double rather than a triple heart by-pass is and if it would probably do the job nearly as well anyway?  Maybe it sucks but you’ve read it this far!

Tesco’s are refusing to reply to my emails (see previous blogs) so whilst I summon the energy to involve the Advertising Standards Agency I will digress.

I have recently been working on a project delivering some sessions on the basic principles of international law to individuals from the Middle-East, Africa and Asia.  The situation across the Middle-East and the Ivory Coast have provided a useful focus, especially the unfolding events in Libya.  Discussion often focuses on the desire of Western governments to export democracy, either by force as in Iraq and Afghanistan, or by rhetoric as has recently happened with Egypt and seems to be the focus of much of our efforts in Libya.  Democracy is aspirational, even Plato recognised that government that directly involved all the people was not possible and in Republic he explores ideas of representative democracy.  It is representative democracy which the West seems to think is the best form of government, and if you agree then the best model of representative government must be that which most closely equates the views of the electorate as to who should govern them with the distribution of power.  Clearly democratic government is achieved with difficulty and expense although events in Libya show the price many are willing to pay to achieve democracy – the arguments made by some in power that democracy is too expensive a luxury for some States and that funds must first be spent on equipping the armed forces therefore seem to me to be weak.  These are the sorts of arguments I equate with crack-pot dictators like Gudafi and I was therefore surprised when I drove past a billboard displaying a British soldier who appears to be serving in Iraq or Afghanistan with the slogan ‘He needs better body armour, not the alternative vote system.’

I am not alone in feeling betrayed by the Lib Dems and I feel settling for a referendum on AV in the coalition agreement was not Nick Clegg’s finest hour – he could have at least held out for a referendum on a more representative voting system.  However it is undeniable that there is currently a gulf between the proportion of votes cast and the proportion of seats held by each political party and that a move to AV signals a move towards a more democratic system.  I suspect the reason the ‘No’ campaign is rallying between arguments based on expense in these times of austerity rather than engaging the substantive topics is because on the substantive issues the debate has been won.  I don’t though believe that there is a direct correlation between defence funding and introducing a more democratic electoral system and if there was am I alone in seeing the hypocrisy of arguing that we should fund the imposition of democracy, by force, in Iraq and Afghanistan (and possibly Libya) at the expense of having a more democratic system of government in Westminster?

It would appear that Tesco’s customer services is made up of the over-emotional Daniel and his more relaxed colleague Sam – both in management positions.  Either that or it’s a team of minimum wage oiks who end all their communications with either Daniel or Sam’s monograph, giving the impression our complaints have been dealt with at the highest level.  Whilst I suspect the latter for the purpose of this narrative I prefer the image of Daniel and Sam playing scrabble and rolling their eyes as my next email appears, playing paper, rock, scissors to determine who has the dubious honour of yet again cutting and pasting verbage from the Tescos website.  Needless to say the discussion continues, this vacuous reply was received from Daniel:

Dear Nick,

Thank you for your patience whilst I have been looking into this for you.

I’ve had the information back from our support team who have advised that at Tesco, we have a policy of insisting on equivalent standards wherever we source from regardless of country of origin.

All of the farms we source from are audited every year by independent auditors to ensure they meet the requirements of strict farm assurance schemes.

Please follow the link below which will take you to our Farming Website set up to share knowledge and improve communication regarding our Animal Welfare Standards,

http://www.tescofarming.com/v2/index.asp“.

I hope this information helps and that this has now been resolved for you.

Thanks again for contacting us and giving us the chance to put this right for you.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me at customer.service@tesco.co.uk quoting TES9143304X.

Kind Regards

Daniel

Ever patient, for which Daniel tediously thanks me in every post I replied thus:

Dear Daniel,

thank you for your reply, however it doesn’t answer my question.  I have now used the rice I bought for another dish – a month after I tried to find about your products I was getting peckish!

Clearly any objective standard of welfare like that you claim Tesco’s has would not alter with country – animal cruelty is animal cruelty regardless of postcode.  The purpose of my enquiry was to ascertain what these minimum standards are and what the requirements of strict farm assurance schemes.  As you allude to your independent auditors I would grateful if you could please advise what the procedure is where an auditor reports that a producer falls below the standards Tescos require.

As you will note from my previous replies I feel the packaging on Tescos own brand cooking chorizo heavily implies that the product is in some way ethical and your website refers to bioethical considerations.  However if you are unable to substantiate these claims then, as a consumer, I have reason to doubt them and will need to discuss the matter with the Advertising Standards Agency.

I look forward to a more informative reply.

Nick

Tescos is now taking up too much of my blogging time.  I have worthy comments on human rights and news from the small-holding.  We had the high of getting our first egg, quickly followed by the low of losing our first chicken and our potatoes are ready to be planted out – having recovered some tyres fly-tipped in a nearby hedge we will growing our potatoes in tyre stacks (patent pending).  Unfortunately the toddler’s been singing since 5am and is now getting restless so my blogging time is cut short.

It’s just over three weeks since I stood at the Tesco customer service desk and asked what I thought was a simple question about the claims made on the labelling, my reader will recall that a highly emotional and deeply caring Daniel began responding to my emails before a more emotionally retrained Sam took over.  Daniel seems to have taken a note from Sam’s book and sent a simple reply, unencumbered with reflections on how this made him feel.  Five days ago he simply sent this:

Dear Mr Cartwright,

Thank you for your further reply.

I’m currently trying to find some more information for you and I will be back in touch as soon as I have any information for you.

Thank you for your patience whilst I look into this.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me

Kind Regards

Daniel Lewis

My patience while Daniel looks into this is beginning to wear a little thin…

The Tesco’s saga continues (see previous blogs) however Daniel has stepped aside and Sam Relph, also a Customer Services Manager, has taken over the mantle.  Sam has adopted a different tactic from Daniel, rather than replying without reading my emails she(?) has read my emails and then repeated the broad statements that are readily available on their website.  She responded by writing:

Dear Nick,

Thank you for your email.

firstly please let me apologise for my colleague Daniel not answering your question, I am not sure what happened on this occasion but I believe i have the information you are looking for.

With all our own label meat products, we consult with suppliers to establish strict codes of practice to govern welfare standards in our supply chain. A group, known as the Tesco Producer Group, which consists of suppliers, farmers and Tesco staff, implement these. We’ve made the move away from intensive farming towards welfare farming and we ensure that high welfare standards are constantly maintained for the animals.

The abattoirs and farms we use are monitored by our own independent food standards guidelines. And our Technologists, who visit these sites regularly, ensure these are maintained. The abattoirs are selected from a short list of those we consider meet our strict codes of practice.

The animals on our suppliers’ farms are reared to a high standard that matches, or even exceeds, the minimum government and EEC requirements for production.

We’re also sponsoring ongoing research with leading animal welfare organisations in order to identify any possible alternative farming methods, which we hope will offer even higher standards throughout the industry.

I hope this information has reassured you and I would like to thank you for your comments.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind Regards

Sam Relch

Customer Service Manager
Tesco Customer Service

At least Sam didn’t empathise with my plight or get all excited and yappy when she(?) thought she had found an answer, although part of me misses Daniel’s unbridled passion for customer service.  I responded to Sam with:

Dear Sam,

thank you for taking the time to read my message before replying and for outlining Tesco’s attitudes towards sourcing their own brand meat products.

I am reassured that Tesco’s ensure that their meat products are raised to a standard that at least matches minimum government standards.  I had, perhaps naively, assumed that all major retailers would endeavour to comply with the law.  I am however a little bemused as to what EEC requirements Tescos ensure they comply with - I assume you are referring to the European Economic Community, however this was renamed the European Community in 1993 following the Treaty of Maastricht and ceased to exist altogether in 2009 following the Lisbon Treaty, perhaps you could clarify this point.

We have however diverted from my original enquiry, and however enticing the concept of a discussion of the evolution of the European Union maybe, nearly a fortnight on I am still craving the paella to which I hope to add Tesco’s own brand cooking chorizo sausages once I am assured I can do so with a clear conscience.  My original enquiry was about the claim you make on the packaging which strongly implies a commitment to animal welfare and invites customers to find out more details – an invitation I took up and am now beginning to regret – I could achieve a similar taste simply by adding paprika to my paella.  Perhaps my original message lacked clarity – despite my efforts to express it in store, over the phone and by email – and therefore I have set out a list of simple questions below and I would be grateful if you could answer these directly rather than cutting and pasting broad and non-specific aspirational statements:

1. Were the pigs that went into Tesco’s own brand cooking chorizo sausages raised indoors or outdoors and in what conditions?

2. What was the diet these pigs were fed on i.e. was it organic, vegetarian etc…

3. What non-natural chemicals were given to the pigs i.e. hormone supplements etc…

4. What elements of the rearing of these pigs differentiates them from other pigs raised for meat production, supporting your (honest?) claims that you worked with the farmers to raise standards.

5. How were the pigs slaughtered?

I look forward to your reply,

Nick

Finally a reply from Tescos, unfortunately not a very informative reply:

Dear Mr Cartwright,

Thank you for your reply.

I am very happy to hear that you have found the information you were looking for.

In future if you have any queries then the information may be on the website, if not then please contact us with the barcode information and we will be more than happy to find any information about the product for you.

Thank you again for taking the time to ask us about this and giving us the chance to look into this for you.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me.

I am persisting so wrote this in reply:

Dear Daniel,

I assume that you must be very busy as it has taken you so long to reply to my previous email, however it would have been more helpful if you had taken the time to read the email before replying.  It is perhaps optimistic to hope that you will read this email but in the spirit of optimism I will explain why your email does not address the issue I raised.

I was enquiring about the ethical sourcing of a Tesco’s own brand product.  You replied asking for more information on the product to allow you to answer my query – I have a first degree and a research masters and utilising my not inconsiderable research skills I was quickly able to find the requested information on your website, this was not a difficult task as the Tesco’s website is easily navigable.  I emailed you the information you said you needed, and were evidently unable to locate on Tesco’s website and you replied expressing a surprising degree of personal satisfaction that I had the answer to my query.  I hope that the news that I do not have an answer to my query is not met with a comparable degree of personal anguish and that you are able to answer my initial inquiry as soon as possible.

Kind regards, Nick

The comments now appear to be working on my blog (thanks to Simon) so please feel free to accuse me of being a sarcy git here.

Tesco replied to my message (see previous blog):

Dear Mr Cartwright,

Firstly, I apologise for the delay in my response.

I’m sorry to hear that the information you would like was not available when you visited our store recently. I can understand how disappointing this must have been for you.

Unfortunately we don’t display this information on the packaging of products as space can sometimes be limited. However if you would like to send me the barcode number of the product then I will be happy to look into this and get the answer for you.

Thank you for taking the time to ask us about this and giving us the chance to put this right for you.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me at customer.service@tesco.co.uk quoting TES9061168X.

Kind Regards

Daniel Lewis
Customer Service Manager
Tesco Customer Service

I replied:

Dear Mr Lewis,

thank you for your reply and for empathising with my disappointment.

I understand why you don’t display the information requested on the packaging, however I am dissatisfied that the information is not available from Tesco’s staff, by calling Tesco customer service, by emailing Tesco customer service or by visiting the website which you direct your customers to on the very limited space you state you have for product information.

As I am trying to establish the nature of the product before I purchase it I do not have the product barcode however using your website I was quickly able to find it, the product id is 263737866.  If in future you need to locate a product so as to better advise customers I can recommend www.tesco.com

I look forward to your reply,

Nick Cartwright

This time last week I was exploring a sustainable community with the toddler and some friends, as my reader will recall from my previous blog I have taken some important lessons from the experience.  Yesterday we bumped into friends and compared notes on our plans for dinner, asserting my desire to create a greater sense of community for the toddler and I we agreed to take our ingredients to their house, El harassed their new baby and the men cooked while the ladies chatted and drank wine – a much more pleasurable experience than eating alone and we will try to share our supper more often.  The chickens are doing well and the compost heap is taking shape and I exerted my desire to live more sustainably by trying to take more care over the food we eat, resulting in a time-consuming but ultimately unproductive investigation into what Tesco’s mean when they claim on their own products that their “Agriculture Team works with farmers”, a team, according to their website, trained in (amongst other things) bioethics.  Determined not to give up I have just followed up my pestering with an email:

To Whom It May Concern,

I am concerned about animal welfare and only purchase products containing meat or fish which I believe have been produced in a sustainable and ethical manner.  In order to do this I have researched labelling systems like the RSPCAs Freedom Foods and organisations such as the Marine Stewardship Council.  On Tesco’s own brand Cooking Chorizo Sausages the packaging claims that “our Agriculture Team works with farmers” and directs consumers to your website, www.tescofarming.com.  The statement implies that you have a team working with your producers to ensure some kind of minimum standard and I was interested to know what this would be.  I spoke to customer services but was told they could offer no assistance, they suggested I call your customer services team, after further discussion your colleague was somehow able to get an outside line on the phone that she had repeatedly assured me could not make external calls and pass on the advice that I should go home and look at your farming website.  Your farming website tells me that your Agriculture Team is responsible for implementing the Tesco Animal Welfare Policy.  The website is clear that the Policy is based on five freedoms which are broad aspirational claims but tells me nothing about what this means in practical terms.  I would like to know what bioethical and welfare standards were observed in the farming and slaughter of the pigs that were killed to make Tesco’s Cooking Chorizo Sausages and why this information is not available in store, from your call centre or on your website.

I look forward to your reply,

Nick Cartwright

Unfortunately my desire to seek a more spiritual path was thwarted by a pile of marking which had to be concluded this weekend but I remain committed to addressing this.