Silver Marketing Association Member | CIPR | MPA Inspiration Award

The JAM Jar

29.05.12

Dependent on your political persuasion (or perhaps just your level of cynicism), the reasons behind the Chancellor’s U-turn on the controversial ‘pasty tax’ differ dramatically. The Tories are naturally using it as leverage to show they are a ‘listening’ government, while Labour are holding it up as another example of an ‘ill-thought out’ approach to the Budget, and proof of an out-of-touch leader – an argument not helped by the Prime Minister’s recent gaffe regarding Leeds station, and the West Cornwall Pasty purchase that never was.

Whatever the reason behind it, the nation’s pasty lovers are applauding. Whether it’s for a government they believe in, or simply for the love of a meat and veg filled delight, is anyone’s guess. Both parties are already frantically using this unexpected national cause, to push their agendas and score political points, but when it comes to it – do we actually even care what the U-turn means on a political level, when we can sleep easy in our beds knowing our pasties won’t increase by 20%?  If not, we might be a flakier bunch than we thought after all.

Follow more of Dawn’s musings on Twitter.

A tasty debate

16.05.12

Thin Lizzy may have sung about the boys being back in town, but for the nation’s building sites in May it was all about the girls – the C.K Magma Hit Squad girls, that is!

To celebrate the award-winning premium storage brand’s first birthday, the Hit Squad beauties took to the roads again and no show without punch – us Jammers went too.  When we found out we were visiting sites in North London, we also invited our friends at Professional Electrician  and Professional Builder to join us – well, it would have been rude not to!

A 10am start at a Wilmot Dixon building site in St. Albans meant there was plenty of time for a lie-in before layering up for the miserable May weather (the glorious sun was about a week too late, unfortunately). On arrival, we were all aptly ‘suited and booted’ in Magma gear, and made our way on-site to gauge the workers’ reaction to the girls, and of course, the truckload of Magma freebies.

After a great reception at St Albans, it was on to Hemel Hempstead, to visit the site of the Hemel Gateway project by KIER construction, where the girls, despite the sporadic rainstorms, were in great spirits and brightened up a lot of tradesmen’s days. We battled though the elements with the help of our usual Starbucks and trustworthy Magma beanie hats.

With Facebook  tagging going into overdrive, the Hit Squad girls even took pride of place in one or two profile pictures – and it was smiles all round from the tradesmen!

C.K Magma team on site

We even managed to get a few candid snaps of Terry Smith at Professional Builder – well we say candid, he was more than happy to pose for us! 

Professional Builder's Terry Smith

Our own Dawn Hesketh was fooled into thinking she was taking a test shot but alas we got it up on the C.K Magma Facebook before she had a chance to say anything.

Dawn gets involved!

Aside from the weather, it was a great day out, and a fantastic start to the second stage of C.K Magma’s Hit Squad campaign.