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| Official: Philippine Hostage Crisis to End Sunday A Philippine official says the armed tribesmen holding 46 hostages in the country's south have agreed to surrender after the government promised to consider some of their demands. www1.voanews.com |
EU extends Chinese shoe tariffs The European Union votes to extend tariffs on shoes from China and Vietnam to help European firms compete with imports. news.bbc.co.uk |
The DNA Problem in American Spying The why-can’t-we-all-get-along issues have haunted American intelligence for six decades. feeds.nytimes.com |
US denies killing Iran scientist The US dismisses allegations by Iran that US and Israeli agents killed physicist Massoud Ali Mohammadi in Tehran. news.bbc.co.uk |
Death by chocolate | Andrew Martin Cadburys' sale ends an age in which working-class culture was shaped by Quaker entrepreneursReading about the Âcapitulation of the Cadbury board to Kraft, the image that came to mind was of my 13-year-old self lying flat on the hot, stone Âbalcony of Rowntree Lido in ÂRowntree Park, York, and gazing at the tops of the giant poplars – dreamily Âremote – that acted as a windbreak.Or I see myself emerging from the Joseph Rowntree Theatre after one of the performances I took part in there. I would, accidentally on purpose, leave on a little of my eyeliner, and as I waited for a bus in front of the benignly Âblazing factory (the only thing in York that Âcarried on all night), amid the Âenveloping smell of roasted cocoa beans, I would feel the city had become a sultry and glamorous place.I was aware that some other Âchocolate philanthropists, the Cadburys, had done similar favours for the people of ÂBirmingham, but I was happy to Âsettle for Rowntree's. I revised for my A-levels in the library they'd built; I attended popular lectures at their Friend's ÂMeeting House. My grandfather worked for Rowntree's as a fitter. He liked Âworking there – before the war, he told me, cowboy films had been shown at the theatre for factory employees – and I liked him working there since a great many chocolates came my way in bags marked, with what seemed Âunnecessary deprecation (since they were still Âdelicious), "Waste". My auntie Dot worked for Rowntree's and so, later on, did my Âstepmother. I remember a friend of my Dad's who was an engineer in the Smarties department telling me that the production process was closely Âanalogous to that for buttons, and not chocolate ones, either.As with the Cadburys, the ÂRowntrees' philanthropy came from their ÂQuakerism, and that's where the Âchocolate came from, too. The plan had been that drinking chocolate would provide a popular alternative to alcohol. I believe Hitler had the same idea, but the Rowntrees were good guys. Joseph Rowntree II installed a female welfare worker in the York factory in 1891. At the turn of the century he established sick and provident funds, along with a Âpension and savings scheme and a doctor's surgery. His son, Seebohm Rowntree, wrote Poverty: A Study of Town Life, which in 1908 coined the term "poverty line" and agonised about those below it. Seebohm seems to have left much of the actual chocolate side of things to George ÂHarris, a veritable northern Willie Wonka, who in one inspired year (1935) invented both the Aero bar and KitKat biscuit.As a boy, if I saw somebody eating a KitKat in, say, Manchester, I would feel a surge of pride in my home city. Maybe my grandfather had had a hand in that particular KitKat – perhaps Âliterally. The same went for seeing someone eat a Chocolate Orange, because York also accommodated Terry's chocolate Âfactory. The Terrys were not Quakers, and were not philanthropists on the Rowntree scale, but they were good sorts in a Tory paternalist sort of way. Their neo-Georgian factory was a popular place to work, and positively pretty to look at. At night the clock shone, moon-like, over the south of the city, with letters spelling "Terry's of York" in place of the numerals. Terry's established a cafe in the centre of town, where ladies in hats had a jolly time, and a notice told of how, in the New World, chocolate was Theobrama, the food of the gods, and certain kinds were served to Montezuma in gold vessels, hence Terry's All Gold.Terry's was sold to Kraft in 1993. After giving assurances that they would keep open the York factory, they closed it in 2005, and shifted production to eastern Europe. The factory will now become (and I find I can hardly keep awake as I write the words) a "mixed use" building.Rowntree's was bought by Nestlé in 1988. The factory survives, but with far fewer people working in it and the Swiss flag flying on its roof. It is no longer integrated into the life of the city. Some of the confections retain the Rowntree's branding, but offhand, I can only think of the humble Jelly Tot.And so, by slow degrees, a nation dies.CadburyKraftNestléReligionAndrew Martinguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |