Let me first declare an interest.
I could live on Starbucks hot chocolate.
The mugs are huge!
Today the American coffee giant sent out a tweet asking people in Ireland to state what made them feel proud to be British.
http://www.thejournal.ie/starbucks-criticised-for-british-tweet-to-irish-followers-475342-Jun2012/
Oops…
What is worth noting about this gaffe is how these are changed days for such Irish chippiness.
The IMF bailout, the Queen’s visit to Dublin and Sinn féin in government in Northern Ireland has changed the mood music of the east west relations.
The world view of these matters that I was socialised into half a century ago is like another country.
These are conjoined islands and the peoples of this archipelago are probably more in step with each other than at any time in our shared history.
Although people mourn our real loss of sovereignty to an EU super state, they don’t want to be ruled by London again.
The Queen is adored by many people in this Republic and held in genuine esteem, but she isn’t our head of state.
That said if Michael D stepped down she would probably beat Angela Merkel in a referendum!
I think we should be more understanding of those Starbucks folks.
It must be confusing with all these itty bitty countries in Europeland that they kinda own.
We all gotta get along…
It wasn’t always such a love affair with the American icon.
I remember the trauma of being at the head of a large lunchtime queue in central London and asking for a “COFFEE”.
It was like going into Currys today and asking the digitally remastered adolescent for a gramophone.
Perhaps because of the derisive reaction from the other patrons that next time I ordered a hot chocolate.
Addiction quickly followed.
Oh, and yes to whipped, but hold the marshmallows.
God save the cream and that’s to go!
