Quorn Shoes - How Far is Too Far?

I've had a lovely week bumming around Brighton with my sister. We walked on the beach, got leered at by random weirdos, had ice creams and hot dogs, wandered round the Laines and ate entirely too much tiramisu.

Wandering round the Laines was interesting, and I thought I'd bring back a souvenir of my exasperation for you guys - a picture of a vegetarian shoe store. Now come on! I think this might be on par, if not slightly more ridiculous than ideas like communism, fair trade organic gluten free sashimi and those hideous jute 'ghana must go' bags that Louis Vuitton is trying to turn into a handbag trend. So not happening!

While we should respect animal and plant life on earth, people have forgotten that animals are subject to us, to humans. Why should there be vegetarian shoes? I refrain from being mean about vegetarian food; I thought Quorn was the height of food substitution but shoes? It is the cow's fate to give us meat, milk and leather. Not using this leather because we feel sorry for the cow is the latest addition to what I'd like to call my 'Catalogue of Modern Man's Inferiority Complex'. It's because we've forgotten that we are the boss of the cows, and not the other way round, that we can pussyfoot around them and shortchange ourselves of good footwear, just because, sniff sniff, we feel sorry for the cows. If anyone bothered to ask them, they'd find that the cows are actually very happy to keep us in top quality, beautifully stinking leather shoes, belts and bags.

Barring dietary allergies, I don't know why anyone wouldn't eat meat, but as I said, I won't be mean about it, because we must be respectful of people's preferences etc, but taking the aversion into shoes goes to far. If you don't eat meat, don't create things that look and taste like it (Quorn) but aren't it - that's like eating your cake and having it (or is it having your cake and eating it?) and its very confusing for some of us. But why do there need to be vegetarian shoes? Last time I checked the dictionary, being vegetarian was a dietary preference, not a movement. In the light of this, is it possible or right, even, for vegetarianism to be extended into non-dietary areas? It's whimsical. What if meat eaters decided that they'd only use clothes, stationery and other products that contained some sort of animal component? Would that be allowed? I don't think so.

I mean, kudos to the entrepreneur of this venture. It's very good niche marketing and all, but Quorn shoes? I mean, really! Strangely, I found it oddly charming that such a shop should be established in Brighton. Strangely, Brighton always reminds me of what I imagine a conglomeration of Camden/Soho/Covent Garden would look like. Edge, funk, alternative & random bottled and sprawled out by the sea.