Ken Livingstone's on a tap water crusade. Him and Thames Water have launched a campaign to encourage Londoners to be proud to ask for tap water, however many grannies it's been through. Not only are they extolling the quality of the water and the clear financial benefits, they're trying to make it sexy by running a competition to design a carafe worthy of holding our precious Eau de Londres.
Asking for tap water in smart restaurants is about 500 times cheaper than asking for bottled and also liberating in a snobby restaurant taboo breaking kind of way. But it ain't sexy. It really isn't.
The sort of cafes that don't even make you ask but have it on the tables or counters ready for you are the lovely hand knitted, socialisty kind of places that make us feel warm and fuzzy. Ask for tap water in somewhere more upmarket and you're not only risking waiting staff's disapproval (their 12.5% is shrinking before their eyes) but your hot date's questioning your generosity, taste and politics before you're even got the bread and olives.
Still, we've got some ideas for that carafe. Imagine: a recycled glass erotic gherkin! St Pauls rendered in pewter with a opening dome lid! We've got this compo nailed. Tap water never had it so good.
Enter the compo and read about the campaign here.
Image courtesy of Dotjay's Flickrstream.
