Would Jesse Boot have agreed with Stefano Pessina? (Clue: he called his employees ‘comrade’)

Right Boot, left Boot

What would Jesse Boot, who built Britain’s largest chemist chain from his father’s herbal shops, made of the spat between Labour and Stefano Pessina, chief executive of the firm? — Boot was a lifelong Liberal, but then he was already 50 years old when the Labour party was formed. He was in the habit of calling his workers ‘comrades’. — But it was his son John who saw the company’s Nottingham factory as the basis of a future welfare state, declaring 1938: ‘When we establish pension funds which relieve our workers of fears for their old age, when we reduce the number of working days in the week, or give long holidays with pay to our retail assistant, we are setting a standard which governments in due time will be able to make universal.’ — John was no more a socialist than his father, however, selling Boots to the United Drug Company of America.