Richard Keys – A Modern Day Rosa Parks: Pundit Rails Against Injustice Of 5p M&S Plastic Bag Fee On Twitter

Alan Duffy

7th, September 2013

11 Comments

By Alan Duffy

Keys

That living, breathing real-life Alan Partridge, Richard ‘hanging out the back of her’ Keys got himself into another right muddle on Twitter on Saturday.

After Tweeting from Doha that he had “left £50 worth of food on a Marks & Spencer counter after refusing to pay the 5p charge for a plastic bag ‘cos he wanted to bring the baskte out to his car, the disgraced ex-Sky Sports anchor, unsurprisingly, received a torrent of abuse on twitter before trying rather pathetically to turn the incident into some sort of one-man stand against the corporate world. Rather than a misjusdged act by a tight eejit.

The 5p M&S charges on bags, which is meant to discourage customers from creating too much waste, also goes to various relevant charities, which seems like a sensible idea to me. However, not to Keys who questioned where the money actually ends up. Like he cares.

He even wrote a blog soon after the whole malarky, saying:

And on another point – got some stick this morning for walking away from M&S. Let me explain.

‘Do you want a bag with that?’ Was the question from a po faced cashier. ‘Well, unless you have any other ideas that’s not a bad one’.

‘Five pence’, came the reply.

‘Don’t worry’ I said. ‘Leave them in the basket a s I’ll carry them to the car’.

‘Can’t do that. Baskets aren’t allowed out of the shop. You’ll have to buy a bag’.

What are they trying to achieve in there? Selling bags to make money – or cutting down because they’re supposed to be an environmental problem?

‘It’s for charity’ I hear you cry. Really? Well I chose where and when to work for and give to charity. Unless something has changed since I’ve been away charity donations are by choice – not compulsory. It’s a rip off. That’s what it is.

No problems at the co-op!

Maybe he can start a  new career as a serious investigative journalist. I suggest we parachtue him into Syria right now to get his new career underway? Or maybe he’ll start reporting on human rights abuses in the place he now earns his money, Qatar?

Oh, and please check out the comments  on his Twitter page. Superbly funny (where I found the Rosa Parks one in the headline!).

Posted in Media, Newsnow

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11 Comments

  1. Zam says:

    Think of all the things he could have bough for that 5p……

  2. bob says:

    i agree with him, these companies make enough money as it is. instead of giving money to charity from their own pockets like footballers do, they make the customer pay the money for them. plus its annoying too

  3. David says:

    Why do you keep referring to Waitrose, when the tweet only ever talks about Marks & Spencer?

  4. Toz says:

    @Zam, like his Sky Sports career?

  5. Zam says:

    @Toz, most likely people would pay money for that to not happen again.

  6. Bagger says:

    I’m sure he demanded his co-op groceries be DOUBLE bagged.

    Move along, nothing to see, no environmental problem here.

    I always enjoy the fall months when the leaves fall from the trees and are replaced with plastic grocery bags….

  7. carl says:

    I feel sorry for the guy. He lost his job and now can’t afford 5p for a bag :(

    He’s right about charity being a choice though. If you don’t want to pay 5p for a bag then, y’know, take one with you like normal people who know how shops work these days.

  8. Doctor's Your Uncle says:

    5p??
    In Denmark, where I reside, a plastic bag costs more that 30p!

  9. Luke says:

    Fuck, he sounds like an irrepressible little twat.

    “Well I chose where and when to work for and give to charity.”

    You also choose where you shop, you fucking pillock. If 5c towards charities hurts so much, either shell out for reusable bags or don’t shop at M&S.

  10. Iain says:

    They have a Co-op in Doha?

  11. Marc Edwards says:

    Pay your fee and accept that each time you pay a fee, you are being penalised for being too lazy to carry a bag with you.
    What a pathetic individual. How he thinks that replying to a counter assistant in that manner is acceptable, I do not know.

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