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19.11.01
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Tesco Stores Plc.
Influence / Lobbying Lobby Groups Tesco along with Sainsburys, Safeway, Asda and M+S are or have recently been members of the Freight Transport Association, "the lobby group representing the interests of road hauliers …(which) campaigns against restrictions on lorries travelling through residential areas at night, against constraint on the size of lorries and for increases in the speed limit for large lorries on small country roads."[22] Tesco is also a member of the British Retail Consortium [23]. Tesco also appears to influential within the CBI (Confederation of British Industry), with Terry Leahy being invited to address its annual conference in November 2001.Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco's Director of Corporate Affairs, also sits on the CBI's Europe Committee and managed to accompany a Foreign Office delegation to the Czech Republic in this capacity [24], clearly showing the government's foreign policy priorities. She also sits on the UNICE Task Force on Enlargement, UNICE being the Union of Industry and Employers Federations of Europe, of which the CBI is a member-federation [25]. Interestingly, UNICE has been picked out by Corporate Europe Observatory for its lobbying against binding agreements on carbon emissions, (see: http://www.xs4all.nl/~ceo/greenhouse/european.html) which sits somewhat uncomfortably with Tesco's professed concern about the subject. (see Corporate Crimes) For more on UNICE, see: http://www.xs4all.nl/~ceo/ebsummit/factsheet2.htm Tesco is a client of PR firm Weber Shandwick Worldwide [26], which also deals with delights such as Nestle and McDonalds [27]. Education To fit in with the current trend in corporations entering schools to convert children to buying their products, Tesco in 1990 began the Computers for Schools scheme. More details of this are in Corporate Crimes. Tesco has also created Tesco schools net, details at: http://tesco.schoolnet2000.com/news_p.html, which has undoubtedly been helping them to stamp their brand on young minds. It has also been funding research in universities. A particularly ludicrous tale of its research into preventing tomato sauce splattering can be found at: http://www.pastafresco.com/atlast.htm. Tesco also sponsored a Masters course in Strategic Communications at UMIST, along with British American Tobacco, [28] and sponsors the Tesco Centre for Organic Agriculture at the University of Newcastle on Tyne (whose webpage is at: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/tcoa/). The latter of these sponsorships may appear to be a positive development, but it should be remembered that the direction of research will be dictated by Tesco's interests, and therefore it will be trying to fit organic agriculture into an industrial mould, involving few employees and large scale monocultural production. At its worst it could also be a vehicle for trying to dilute organic standards. Government Tesco executives feature in several government task forces. Terry Leahy, Chief Executive, sits on the Board of Trade's Competitiveness Advisory Group."[29] John Longworth, Trading Law and Technical Director of Tesco,[30] sits on the Advisory Committee for Consumer Products and the Environment [31] and on the Advisory Committee on Packaging [32]. Lucy Neville-Rolfe has also been appointed to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Management Board,[33] further crossing the line between influencing the government and being the government. Tesco gave the Labour Party more than £5,000 in sponsorship in 1997 and 1998. They are the biggest backer of the Government's New Deal scheme [34]and have offered 1500 'opportunities' for New Deal applicants [35]. Tesco's former Chief Executive Ian McLaurin sits in the House of Lords, and in 1999 Tony Blair's government launched its first annual report in Kensington Tesco [36]. Tesco was also a £12 Million sponsor of the Millenium Dome, which must have further endeared it to the government [37]. Indeed the Observer drew a suggestive line between this donation and Tesco's opposition to a planned tax on shopping centre car parks drawn up by John Prescott's Transportation Task Force, which would cost Tesco upwards of £20 million a year. The wording of the Task Force report was supposedly redrafted to exempt Tesco from the tax. Both the Government and Tesco deny that the donation influenced the tax decision. A government told the Observer that Tesco made its pledge to the Dome in February, months before the Government had considered the tax. Yet Tesco's lobbyists told the Observer that they had 'intelligence' about the tax from government insiders at least three months before they announced the Dome donation [38]. Of course this doesn't mean that the two actions were causally related but having advance knowledge of the tax must have helped Tesco plan its reaction rather well. Heiress to the chain is the notorious Dame Shirley Porter, perhaps best known for the 'Homes for Votes' scandal, details of which can be found at : http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk/low/english/uk/newsid_40000/40978.stm http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk/low/english/special_report/ 1997/dame_shirley/newsid_40000/40995.stm
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| Footnotes [22] George Monbiot Captive State p.176 [23] www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/c m199899/cmselect/cmtrdind/678/9070622.htm [24] www.nds.coi.gov.uk/coi/coipress.nsf/ 898f421d664e93ca802567350057b240/ 5c6867abef1c2a5c802569dd0057df0a?OpenDocument [25] www.esrc.ac.uk/newsociety/newsociety/whoinvests.html [26] The Guardian, 6th June 2001 [27] www.webershandwick.com/locations/lo_details.cfm [28] The Guardian, Friday 8th December 2000 [29] House of Commons Hansard for 14th October 1997, www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ ld199798/ldhansrd/vo971014/text/71014w03.htm [30] House of Commons, Minutes of Evidence, Food Standards, 9th March 1999 www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/ pa/cm199899/cmselect/cmfoods/276/9030902.htm [31] DTLR Annual Report 2000 p. 282, www.dtlr.gov.uk/annual00/pdf/appendi3.pdf [32] DETR Press Release, 6th December 2000, www.press.dtlr.gov.uk/0012/g009.htm [33] House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 23rd June 2000, www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/ pa/cm199900/cmhansrd/vo000623/text/00623w04.htm [34] www.red-star-research.org.uk/subframe3 [35] www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget/1998/chap3.htm [36] ibid p206 [37] The Guardian 3rd March 2001 [38] The Observer, Sunday 25th March 2001 www.guardian.co.uk/dome/article/0,2763,462599,00.html |