Further to my earlier scare story (3 March) I can now report that good old Blighty has shown the proverbial index and middle fingers to Brussels, and - for the time being at least - has saved the British BOGOF.
Phew! Somewhere, in the midst of the impenetrable forest that's the Whitehall we all love to hate, a latter-day Robin Hood evidently plies their trade. A force for freedom (make that FREEdom), a force for the re-distribution of the multiples' extraordinary profits, this brave soul and his (or her) merry band have told those irrational continental bureaucrats where to get off. If we wanna say FREE, we'll say it.
So, while it appears that every other enforcement agency in Europe has danced to Big Bruss's tune, the BERR (the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) and the OFT have voted with their size 12s and stayed put. Promoters, at ease. Buy one get one free, try me free, free with purchase... as British as pounds, shillings and pence and henceforth safe as houses.
Wasn't it Napoleon who noted we're a nation of shopkeepers? You think the observation would have sunk in over the years. Anyway, now they know... don't mess with our BOGOFs.
