J Mark Brewer, I Salute You. Briefly.

Such, unfortunately, is the nature of a salute: it’s a sign of respect, but it’s very short lived. Nonetheless, credit where it’s due: as Matt Wardman noted in his latest weekly roundup, within ten days of ToyboxColin expressing his distress at being unpaid, you paid him: thank you.

On July 8th, ToyboxColin wrote:

Am I representing the first supplier to the former SPCK shops who has decided to make a comment on this blog? We are a Christian Charity who sold Christmas Cards and a few other Latin American Crafts to the shops last Autumn for which we have not been paid. Not a huge debt but significant to us! This site and the Cartoon Blog seems to eb the only place to find out what is going on with all this Bankruptcy and Liquidation nonsense. It’s about time the Brewers owned up to their total incompetence to run anything – including a bath!

On July 18th, he wrote:

Surprise, surprise………we’ve been paid IN FULL, including the Court Costs for filing a claim, direct from ENC in the USA! Wonder if other suppliers have???

But it gets better than that: when Pauline Edwards expressed her distress at her friend’s situation — also picked up on by the Revd Sam Norton and the Revd Dr Christian Troll —  just six days later, you paid that friend: thank you. 

On August 2nd, Pauline wrote:

Mr Brewer,
Could you tell me please, why you told a fellow worker, that there job was safe, and it was o.k. to take there first mortgage out to buy a house. The fellow worker trusted you, after asking you a few times. That fellow worker has took the biggest debt ever, on your assurance, and was only in there new home 2 days, when they were sacked by email, and left this person with no wages to pay there first mortage payment.
Does this ring a bell Mr Brewer?

On August 8th, she wrote:

GUESS WHAT everyone, that fellow worker, has been payed today. Maybe Mr Brewer read the blog I posted, and realised He had put that fellow worker in a mess with the mortgage. He does have a heart after all. He still hasn’t payed me though.

Once again, THANK YOU Mr Brewer, I have spoken to Tammy, you have made her a very happy girl. I mean it THANK YOU. She is a great girl, and you have took a great weight off her shoulders!!!

This is good news, Mark, and this is why I offer you this brief salute.

But Pauline herself apparently remains unpaid. And she is not alone. You know that, Mark: you know how many workers you haven’t paid and you know all the suppliers you haven’t paid.

And if the St Stephen the Great Trust or the ENC Management Company — or whatever other guise you’re trading under now — can afford to pay you $75,000 in legal fees for your services at Brewer and Pritchard, it can certainly afford to pay its workers their wages, with some to spare for the suppliers too.

Please pay them. It shouldn’t be necessary for them to have to cry out against you on a public forum such as this. It certainly shouldn’t be necessary for me to have to spell this out for you. This blog shouldn’t be necessary.

You wanted me silenced. Here’s how you can achieve that: not through belligerence and bullying but by paying your workers and suppliers… and last but not least, by withdrawing your threats against me, my colleagues and friends.

And, of course, any donation you’d care to make to the Save the SPCK Booksellers fund in the meantime will be very welcome: thank you.