Grandmother versus Tesco

You have admire this woman's fortitude in taking on one of the big boys!

In retaliation for finding her home the subject of a possible compulsory purchase order to make way for yet another new Tesco store, Dot Reid has decided to give the Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy, a taste of his own medicine by applying for planning permission to bulldoze his mansion home in Hertfordshire and provide land for a community garden!

She won't win either fight of course sadly, Tesco will, because they always do, they can afford the best lawyers and they can afford to have the necessary 'friends' in high places.... but as one who has found herself in the past, with a property legally blighted by compulsory purchase and having taken my fight the more usual route to law, I applaud her style.

In my case I tried to fight a test case (not against Tesco I might add), firstly against the very specific piece of [then] new legislation that had cause my situation and then through the European court of human rights. It became quite literally a full time, five year job, even finding a barrister to take the case took well over two years, barristers it seems aren't overly keen on taking cases that may or may not succeed, with the possible knock on effect of making or breaking their careers. Ultimately, much to my chagrin, circumstances prevented me from 'taking it all the way' but I have little doubt that I wouldn't have beaten the establishment, once you get that close up to the 'powers that be' their modus operandi is all too glaringly apparent..... and it's not a pretty sight.

So whilst I don't hold out much hope for her attempts Mrs Reid has my admiration because like so many things in our system more recently, for we minions, fighting in the more usual, acceptable and fair manner has a nasty habit of failing dismally!

Cynical....who me?