The Battle of the Underdog
Big business has been on the losing side of a number of small skirmishes recently. Two recent examples. Two days ago Tesco lost a planning application to open a supermarket in the town of Hadleigh, Suffolk after local businesses raised £80,000 to pay for top advisors to present their case (here). And yesterday the village of Tecoma 20 miles outside Melbourne Australia, hit the international news (here ) in their fight to stop McDonald’s opening a local branch.
We particularly relate to the little man or the small community winning, always against the odds, in a fight with a corporate giant. Look at the popularity of movies like Erin Brockovich, Philadelphia, and Local Hero. The arguments rehearsed in the movies and in the publicity which the real events attract are almost always emotional – the wickedness of globalization, the erosion of rights of the individual, the imbalance of availability of money to fight the fight.
But these battles are actually always won and lost on the facts. The professional team in Hadleigh advised that up to 14 businesses in the town would close if Tesco were to be successful, and the local traffic infrastructure would collapse. The local planning committee agreed. And in Tecoma they collected 97000 signatures to demonstrate the strength of feeling against the opening of the McDonald’s branch (impressive for a village with a population of 2000) and presented them in a petition to McDonalds HQ in Chicago. The local planning council had been convinced and had already rejected McDonald’s application but the State Planning Tribunal overturned this decision and the fight goes on.
It is not only the facts which make the difference; it is also the presentation of the facts. Many other campaigns against big business, with arguments just as strong as those in Hadleigh and Tecoma have not succeeded. The f