Musket. I wouldn't touch Amazon's main retailing business with a barge pole. That's because they pay abominable wages and screw their workers for every ounce of sweat they can get out of them. That's it. Right in the true spirit of Thatherism. Plus, they register their business abroad, thereby avoiding paying the taxes which their underpaid workers have to pay. And that's in the true spirit of Thatcherism as well.

However, if you knew your way round Amazon you would realise that other retailers advertise on the Amazon website, under a feature called the Marketplace. I regard usage of this as ethical, well a bloody sight more ethical than dealing with Amazon direct at any rate. That's because Amazon workers don't have to handle the goods. They come direct from whoever you ordered them from.

Also, while Amazon take 15% of the purchase price for running the adverts, that isn't exactly going to swell their already burgeoning profits. That's why I chuckle quietly to myself every time I buy a book on Amazon Marketplace for just 1p. In case you can't work it out, Amazon's share on such a sale would be 0.15p. By 'eck. The directors are really going to live the life of Riley on that!

Mind you, you won't get quite such a bargain on The Enemy Within: The Secret War Against the Miners - 30th Anniversary Edition by Seumas Milne. That's the definitive book on the dirty tricks campaign, which the establishment waged against the miners, by the way. The cheapest they've got listed at the moment is £6.58 from Wordery, a very good company, with whom I've dealt quite a lot. Even so you should read it. You never know, it might help broaden your horizon.

And no, I don't know whether Amazon sells Bulgarian umbrellas or knuckle dusters, or any of the other things you might need to kick the shit out of striking miners. Bit of a dead loss from that point of view.