ON the plans for a Starbucks in Stroud Posted by Pisces123: Why is yet another coffee shop opening in Stroud? We don’t need these chains in town, we need to support the lovely independent shops and cafes that we are so fortunate to have!

Posted by MoreSilentMajority: But we need to pay £199.99 for a mug of coffee with imported civet cat digestive system processed coffee beans hand ground by Tibetan monks and transported by miniature yaks directly to the discerning barista for elegant pouring to the public.

On the comments from readers criticising the Starbucks plans.

Posted by Nevertrustahippy: I was raised in an Ashram in Rowley Regis before moving to a commune in Matson where I rebelled against my parents Star Child and Kevin who were all out of ideas and eventually sent me to a Steiner school where I gained no skills whatsoever and the only employment I was fit for was a job in the public sector in the green initiatives department where I was sacked by my lover and head of department when he realised my chakras were imbalanced and caught me eating a steak and kidney Pukka Pie during Vegan Week.

Posted by kjag23: I love coming here and seeing nevertrustahippy attacking hippies. I wonder what happened to you? Were you raised by hippies and disprove of their ethics? Were you employed and subsequently fired by a hippy? Did you get stuck behind a hippy at Tesco? So many possibilities, such an obsessive loathing of hippies must have been borne from quite a traumatic experience.

On the calls for compensationed to be paid to traders affected by roadworks in Stonehouse.

Posted by Gandalf The Grey: Yeah, let’s have an inquiry! That’ll help, won’t it? If you’re a politician and you want to get in the papers, call for an inquiry! And what good would a refund on the business rates do when many of the hardest hit businesses will be already be receiving Small Business Rate Relief? This initiative was brought in to help small businesses cope with the burden of absurdly high business rates (caused, ironically, by our locally elected politicians), yet even with that, I imagine that many independent Stonehouse traders will STILL be unable to pay themselves anywhere near the National Minimum Wage. Most politicians have no idea of what it takes to run a small business in this country.