Bourgeois pianists
Sir : Leslie Adrian (12 July) has made the mis- take of thinking that we advocate a consumers' political party in our book The Consumer In- terest as the best means of increasing the power and influence of the consumer movement. In fact we took great care to keep all the options open. We considered the pros and cons of a number of solutions that have been put forward, including a whole chapter and more devoted to the development of grass roots advice and complaints services as advocated in More Power to the People. Indeed, a consumers' poli- tical party and grass roots advice services for consumers are, in our view, complementary and not alternative solutions to the problem of the .. limited influence of the consumer movement..
It may be true, as Leslie Adrian says, that middle-class consumers are not the sole bene- ficiaries of changes wrought by a middle class dominated consumer movement. But the capa- city of the consumer movement to bring about the necessary changes is severely limited by the fact that it lacks the backing of the mass of consumers. Without this support it (a) lacks the political and economic power to press its claims for changes in the law and for more con- sumer representation in the decision-making process and (b) lacks the influence over the behaviour and preferences of consumers neces- sary to influence the content of mass market advertising and management decisions.
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