Peter Rhodes on the future for Woolworth, budget fishing kit and plans to conscript a 'citizen army'
There's speculation that Woolworth stores, managed by Woolworth Germany, may reappear on British streets. May I be the first old curmudgeon to complain that the new Woolworths will be nowhere near as good as the old Woolworths?
My happiest memory of dear old Woolies is its own-brand angling equipment, marketed as Winfield. It was cheap and cheerful but it got millions of kids hooked, so to speak, on the sport. A quick trawl through cyber-space today reveals a nostalgic community who still feel fondly about their Winfield days. I've still got my Winfield bass reel, bought in 1974, which works perfectly but, over the past 50 years, has never caught a single bass.
Organisers of a survey are surprised that Brits have voted Martin Luther King's 1963 speech “I have a dream” as the most inspirational ever, with Winston Churchill's “We shall fight on the beaches” (1940) taking second place. But is it surprising? Thanks to decades of imported culture, millions of Brits are steeped in American history but know damn-all about their own.
