This weekend column is brought to you by the founders of Niceties Tokens, Liz and Pete of Team Nice.

9. Corporate Social Responsibility?

I reckon the Tories were on to a goodun when they began their social responsibility gubbins which, throbbing away, is “the heart of modern conservatism”.

Not sure who started it first but all the big corporate have been lapping it up too for a while now. As Mr Google will show you, ‘corporate social responsibility’ is smeared all over the Internet. Does it matter that it’s another corporate reaction, rather than genuinely done out of the love, for the benefit of our community and society? As one corporate robot says to another, “We must be seen to be doing something.”

Is this linked to what Maria from Parliament Square was talking about then – these psychopathic corporate machines that are not real people?

I sound rude, I know – which isn’t great, being an advocate for more niceness – but I honestly think it’s when we can’t engage with people, only the brick wall of a blue chip’s office block, that manners, politeness and respect for each other dies.

Kat works in the coffee shop that I get my coffee from every morning. Working in a service industry, she experiences the social interaction that the niceties token campaign is most interested in. Wonderfully, she told me that she didn’t think Londoners were rude (Kat is from Australia) but she pointed out that we do work long hours in London, and being tired and always in a hurry doesn’t help.

Hmm. Maybe slumber offsetting would help then?

But, as she also pointed out, “I’ve worked in Soho and Charlotte street, very media orientated areas so may be that’s why the type of customers I get are inclined to be polite and friendly.” Yeah, so I should go and observe the cafes in the more corporately responsible districts of Victoria, The City, Holborn etc. and see how they have their coffee served.

This week’s niceness….
This week Team Nice left lottery scratch cards in conspicuous places around London, with a note asking the finder: does a stranger being nice to them encourage them to be nice to someone else? Will report back next week.

By Liz Akers