Bun Fight

The almond croissants, pistachio buns and sage challah sandwiches are fresh and reassuringly ­expensive, the seeded sourdough and artisanal golden ciabatta both retro and trend-setting, the surroundings leafy and the clientele decidedly middle-class. What is there not to like about Gail’s, one of Britain’s most successful new chains, with some 131 branches already open — mostly, of course, in the prosperous southeast — and up to 35 more planned for this year?
Plenty, say the residents of Walthamstow and other more affordable neighbourhoods, as well as the denizens of Thame, Petersfield and Chester, who see the arrival of a formulaic epitome of the zeitgeist as a threat to local cafés, tea shops and village individuality. Why should a bakery, established only in 2005 in fashionable Hampstead, set the pattern for coffee mornings and culinary innovation? Is Gail’s to be the upmarket reincarnation of the much-lamented Lyons Corner House, the go-to place for those who go where others go — only 20 times more expensive? What’s wrong with Greggs, more down-to-earth in prices and punters, and with a touch of northern grit rather than parading the affluent whimsies of the south?
Jealousy, of course, needs a political cover. Local petitions against the opening of a new branch have harnessed the war in Gaza to focus on the Israeli origins of the baker founder, Gail Mejia, with some unpleasant antisemitic undertones; others have objected to the pro-Brexit views of the retail entrepreneur, Luke Johnson, a minority investor.
Pollsters, however, have found that Gail’s is a gift to the Liberal Democrats: inevitably where a branch is established, voters are disillusioned Conservatives who switched their vote. Lib Dems now need only to focus their canvassing on the next Gail’s target to find potential votes. Shouldn’t the chain be judged instead by its buns and bread?