February 19 letters: Time for halal practice to be banned in UK

THE reaction of your readers to the disclosure of the sickening procedures at the halal abattoir in North Yorkshire made very interesting reading. Their anger and disgust was apparent.

I consider that Mr Barrie Crowther’s letter (The Yorkshire Post, February 7) summed things up very well.

“Why” he asks, “in a Christian country are most slaughterhouses halal?”. He adds: “Time this practice was banned in this country.”

To which I can only say, so it should. It will not be banned however, because the whole vile process was legalised by our wonderful Parliament, with a wary eye to the “minority” vote.

Many MPs voted against it, including my MP, but they were overruled by the Anglophobic majority.

Any attempt to have it removed would call forth howls such as “racist” and “Islamophobia”. The deafening silence from the RSPCA and the animal rights activists make it quite plain on which side of the fence they are on.

However, are we not entitled to know exactly how our food is sourced and processed? No doubt your readers will have some excellent suggestions as to how this should be done. Here are a few of mine:

1) Abattoirs who use ritual slaughter methods should have a special licence.

A very limited number of these should be issued. The premises should be strictly controlled.

2) Butchers selling halal meat should make it quite clear by exhibiting a notice on their premises.

3) Butchers who do not sell halal should be invited to advertise this fact.

A number of “local” butchers would benefit by this (I am sure our local butchers would gladly comply – in fact many of them specify which farmer supplied the meat).

4) I think there is only one supermarket which does not stock halal. There could be a problem with identifying imported meat, but I always buy British (our farmers need all the help they can get).

So, as far as I am concerned, the ‘imported’ problem would not arise.

5) All ritually slaughtered meat should be clearly labelled.

Homes land will flood

From: Mrs Celia Savage, Green Lane, Cookridge, Leeds.

I WOULD like to reply to a letter (The Yorkshire Post, February 12) from Alec Denton of Guiseley headlined ‘Undemocratic disaster of Housing plan’.

I am at a loss to understand why Leeds City Council have passed the building plan for an estate of 135 houses (previously 200) in Cookridge at rear of Moseley Wood Gardens.

There have been an enormous amount of objections over a long period.

The area floods, leading down to a beck which floods, leading to a railway line which floods. The roads are inadequate and will be dangerous, access is poor, nearby schools are all but full, the proposed estate will be an unsatisfactory distance from bus-stops, doctors, shops etc. There is little infrastructure, and the important natural habitat is being ignored.

The nearby expanded airport means the roads are becoming busier. As if this was not enough, parts of the forward planning on green belt will add to the misery, not just of Cookridge, but surrounding areas. The land in question is a ‘green’ site of course. Are there no brownfill sites anywhere?

I am afraid that we seem to be in the hands of greedy developers and a council which is totally ignoring the people in their haste to grab green land. I understand we need more housing, partic-ularly social housing. My family and I were made homeless many years ago and I am grateful to have a house now, but there must be a better solution to this problem.

Social media is lawless...

From Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Shefield

HISTORIAN William Snowden states that “under the rule of law the (British) citizen may say or do anything other than that which the law states he must not say or do” (The Yorkshire Post, February 12).

This paraphrases exactly what my history teacher said back in the 1950s, before elaborating that the citizen was free to say anything provided that it was not slanderous, libellous or obscene.

Where does this leave the so-called social media of today where anonymous trolls constantly break these laws with impunity and we are told that nothing can be done about it?

Youngster 
in the pink!

From: Mrs EA Henry, Larchfield Road, Doncaster.

IN 1898 Alice Metcalf, aged two and a half, braved the semi-darkness of the keeping cellar in her family’s home. Her goal was the bowl of stewed rhubarb cooling on the stone slab shelf. Her mother guessed where she had disappeared to and called down: “Alice, are you eating the rhubarb?”

“No, I’m not eating the rhubarb.” Unfortunately the pink juice stains on her pinny proved her misdemeanour. A hundred and sixteen years later, this tale is still amusing our family.