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Promoting mental health and meeting the needs of the large numbers of the general public with problems of anxiety and depression is a big challenge. Particular difficulties are the low capacity of the therapy services and the reluctance of the general public to seek help. The aim of this study was to compare the attendance, effectiveness and characteristics of participants self‐referring to six different psycho‐educational workshops, each using non‐diagnostic titles: self‐confidence; stress; sleep; relationships; happiness; and anger. The series of day‐long workshops ran for one year and were offered to members of the general public in south east London. Over a quarter had not previously sought help from their GP. The take‐up rates for the self‐confidence, sleep and anger workshops were highest and one month after attending these workshops, participants reported significantly lower depression and distress. It was concluded that a self‐referral route to some day‐long workshops can attract quite large numbers of the general public and provide access to effective psychological treatment. These workshops can be used as an effective way of promoting mental health and improving the provision of evidence‐based mental health treatment in the community, possibly within the Improving Access to Psychological Treatments (IAPT) programme in the UK.

The research presented in this article aims to extend our understanding of the symbolic and experiential values of shopping through the investigation of consumers' grocery shopping and consumption experiences.

The research approach was based on the existential phenomenological interview; ten women living in the UK who were in paid employment outside the home at the time of the study, who were married (or living with their partner) and who had at least one child living at home participated in the study which explored their lived experiences of grocery shopping and consumption.

The findings reveal that consumers can construct various dimensions and levels of self/identity through their food shopping and consumption practices through their shopping experiences and in conjunction with various resources and support provided by retailers. Four key themes are identified and explored: “I am in control”; “I am me”; “I share and I love”; and “I belong”.

The present study is exploratory in nature; it identifies four key themes which appear significant and provides a starting point for further research.

This paper explores the ways in which shopping confirms consumers' personal identity, social position and social identity and contributes to the literature in two ways: the research extends our understanding of the experiential values of shopping by extending the domain of enquiry from consumers' experiences in‐store to the actual consumption phase and consumers' self identity is investigated through the exploration of individual consumers' lived shopping and consumption experiences from an holistic perspective.

That the introduction of the Control system should have given rise to a considerable amount of criticism, both appreciative and adverse, was naturally to be expected. The appreciative remarks which have appeared in the press, and those also which have been privately communicated to the directors, indicate that the subject has been intelligently considered, and in some cases carefully investigated and studied. The opinions given are worth having on account of the position and influence of hose who have given them, and on account of the obvious freedom from bias which has characterised them. This is so far satisfactory, and goes to show that the success which has attended the working of the Control system abroad may well be expected to attend it in this country as soon as it is sufficiently well known to be appreciated by the manufacturers and vendors of good and genuine products, and by the general public, whose best interests it cannot but serve.

Purpose – This chapter aims to show that attention to nicknaming as a form of language-making and sensemaking can provide a valuable avenue for exploring employees’ assessments of (mis)behavior. It highlights the connection between gender and language-making as central to the way workers assess and respond to (mis)behavior in different workplaces.

Methodology – The chapter uses an historical perspective and concepts drawn from sociology and organizational theory. It identifies nicknames and nicknaming practices from a wide range of documentary sources and oral sources.

Findings – In considering nicknaming in terms of sensemaking and language-making rather than simply as a form of humor, the chapter shows that derogatory names enable employees to address the tensions and conflicts arising from formal organizational practices, rules, and managerial imperatives and workplace relations. It emphasizes commonalities in nicknaming practices that extend beyond the micro-level of specific workplaces and in doing so illustrates that nicknaming is not simply a manifestation of humor but as importantly of inter-subjective processes through which workers construct group identities to enforce co-produced informal rules of behavior.

Social implications – The chapter illustrates the importance of workplace nicknaming and its implications for the way employees try to influence the behavior of others by condoning and/or shaming those who conform to or defy informal rules.

Originality – The chapter's originality lies in its focus on employees’ own assessments of misbehavior and on commonalities in nicknaming practices in different times and in different places.

In a previous article we have called attention to the danger of eating tinned and bottled vegetables which have been coloured by the addition of salts of copper and we have urged upon the public that no such preparations should be purchased without an adequate guarantee that they are free from copper compounds. Copper poisoning, however, is not the only danger to which consumers of preserved foods are liable. Judging from the reports of cases of irritant poisoning which appear with somewhat alarming frequency in the daily press, and from the information which we have been at pains to obtain, there can be no question that the occurrence of a large number of these cases is to be attributed to the ingestion of tinned foods which has been improperly prepared or kept. It is not to be supposed that the numerous cases of illness which have been ascribed to the use of tinned foods were all cases of metallic poisoning brought about by the action of the contents of the tins upon the metal and solder of the latter. The evidence available does not show that a majority of the cases could be put down to this cause alone; but it must be admitted that the evidence is in most instances of an unsatisfactory and inconclusive character. It has become a somewhat too common custom to put forward the view that so‐called “ptomaine” poisoning is the cause of the mischief; and this upon very insufficient evidence. While there is no doubt that the presence in tinned goods of some poisonous products of decomposition or organic change very frequently gives rise to dangerous illness, so little is known of the chemical nature and of the physiological effects of “ptomaines” that to obtain conclusive evidence is in all cases most difficult, and in many, if not in most, quite impossible. A study of the subject leads to the conclusion that both ptomaine poisoning and metallic poisoning—also of an obscure kind—have, either separately or in conjunction, produced the effects from time to time reported. In view of the many outbreaks of illness, and especially, of course, of the deaths which have been attributed to the eating of bad tinned foods it is of the utmost importance that some more stringent control than that which can be said to exist at present should be exercised over the preparation and sale of tinned goods. In Holland some two or three years ago, in consequence partly of the fact that, after eating tinned food, about seventy soldiers were attacked by severe illness at the Dutch manœuvres, the attention of the Government was drawn to the matter by Drs. VAN HAMEL ROOS and HARMENS, who advocated the use of enamel for coating tins. It appears that an enamel of special manufacture is now extensively used in Holland by the manfacturers of the better qualities of tinned food, and that the use of such enamelled tins is insisted upon for naval and military stores. This is a course which might with great advantage be followed in this country. While absolute safety may not be attainable, adequate steps should be taken to prevent the use of damaged, inferior or improper materials, to enforce cleanliness, and to ensure the adoption of some better system of canning.

This issue of the BRITISH FOOD JOURNAL is the twelfth for which the present Editor is responsible. In December of last year he invited local government officers concerned in administering the food laws to send in reports of matters likely to be interesting or helpful to colleagues in other areas. The response has been excellent, and the Editor tenders his sincere thanks to those who have in this way given information which he has been able to pass on to readers of the Journal. It has not always been possible to find space for all that the Editor would have wished to publish. And in many instances no direct acknowledgment has been made through the post. It is hoped, however, that the medical officers of health, public analysts, inspectors of weights and measures and sanitary inspectors who have supplied so much useful copy will continue to do so, and will realise that their help is highly valued, even when they receive no individual letters of thanks. For everyone engaged in administering the food laws likes to be kept informed of what is happening in other areas. During the past twelve months the circulation of the BRITISH FOOD JOURNAL has risen substantially month by month—not least among manufacturers and wholesale distributors of food, who find it useful to be aware of dangers which they wish to avoid and of new developments which may result in future amendments of the law.

So far as the London activities of librarianship are concerned, the Winter opened propitiously when Mr. J. D. Stewart and Mr. J. Wilks addressed a goodly audience at Chaucer House, Mr. Stewart on American, and Mr. Wilks on German libraries. There was a live air about the meeting which augured well for the session. The chief librarians of London were well represented, and we hope that they will continue the good work. It was the last meeting over which Mr. George R. Bolton presided as Chairman of the London and Home Counties Branch, and he is succeeded by Mr. Wilks. Mr. Bolton has carried his office with thorough and forceful competence, and London library workers have every reason to be grateful. The election to chairmanship of the librarian of University College, London, gives the Branch for the first time a non‐municipal librarian to preside. The change has not been premature, and, apart from that question, Mr. Wilks is cultured, modest and eloquent and will do honour to his position.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

In an article on “Scientific Societies and Alien Enemies,” which appeared in the May issue of The British Food Journal, we expressed the hope that every British Scientific and Technical Society would take immediate steps to expel all foreign members who are to be numbered among the enemies of Great Britain and her Allies, and that each Society should pay special attention to the necessity of purging itself particularly from any existing German taint. Having stated that we were waiting to learn what had been done, or is to be done in this matter by such bodies as The Chemical Society, The Institute of Chemistry, The Society of Chemical Industry and the Royal Society— mentioning only a few of the institutions in whose lists of members the names of enemy aliens appear—we took occasion to point out that the Chemical Society and the Society of Chemical Industry, especially, were probably in need of drastic purification. Since that article was written it appears that the Council of the Chemical Society has taken the matter into consideration and, in this connection, we have been requested to publish two letters addressed to the President of the Society by one of its Fellows together with the President's reply. We comply with the request in view of the facts that the points raised by this correspondence are of public importance and that their application extends far beyond the mere question of a controversy within the narrow circle of a particular scientific body. COLONEL CASSAL, to whom we are indebted for supplying us with copies of the letters referred to, makes the following caustic remarks, with which we fully agree, in a covering letter:—“It will perhaps hardly be credited, but the fact remains, that the Council of the Chemical Society of London, one of the oldest scientific bodies in this country, which, on that account, if, unfortunately, at present, on no other, may possibly be thought to be entitled to some sort of public respect— has refused to take the necessary steps to bring about the immediate expulsion of the alien‐enemy members of the Society, among whom it is practically certain that there are several persons who are acting as expert advisers to the German Government in regard to the use, by their hordes of criminals, of corrosive fluids and poisonous gases in contravention of the universally recognised laws of honourable warfare. It will be seen that in its futile endeavour to find an excuse for its failure to discharge a plain duty the Council has hopelessly stultified itself, and there can be no doubt that the vast majority of the Fellows of the Society will repudiate the ludicrous and self‐condemnatory resolution which, at one and the same time, brings contempt on the Society and ridicule on the Council.”