BY JOHN MUSGRAVE
As Advent begins – notionally a fast, but more often a progression of parties and good cheer – spare a thought for meat-dependent merrymakers. We are all under threat from the mean-green vegan party-poopers who want to ban meat-eating altogether. Halal meat is now in the crosshairs as the soya-bean sallies plot further Herodian bedevilment. Any move to ban halal slaughter is bad news and should be stoutly resisted.
One New Year’s Eve, away from the dancing in a log-fired back parlour, four or five farmers were discussing the internet. One old boy admitted he had what he called a ‘tap-top’.
‘My granddaughter rigged it up,’ Colin told us.
‘What d’you use it for, Col?’ Bryce, the local gamekeeper, snorted.
‘Use it to check sheep prices.’
We fell silent, impressed. Later on in the evening, Colin chimed in on the subject of Islam. Bryce said he once had to talk down a visitor from the Gulf who turned up with an AK-47.
‘Them boys is all right,’ Colin countered. ‘Every time there’s a big festival like Eid, the price of lamb goes up. See it on the line.’
‘Really? Online?’
‘Oh yes, I’ve learned to keep back a few for it.’
‘How d’you know when it is? They’s all lunar calendar, like the Israelites,’ Bryce said.
Apparently, Colin’s granddaughter had calibrated his phone to remind him when Eid was. ‘And the rest,’ he added.
This, then, became my number-one reason not to ban halal slaughter in Great Britain. Think it through. Farming is among the most beleaguered industries in Britain today. It needs the help and support of all Britons, regardless of origins, colour or creed. Sheep farming is among the most precarious of livelihoods. Poor grazing and appalling weather make it an uphill struggle – no pun intended.
If halal slaughter were outlawed, this particular spike in the market would collapse. People would simply import the meat from France and Spain. A proposed ban on halal slaughter will alienate farmers further – already a politically homeless hill-tribe.
Secondly, consider the plight of the moderate Muslim, one who rarely bothers to attend mosque. In the same way a notional Christian might observe Christmas, he wants traditional food at a festival. Ban halal and you are effectively saying to moderate Muslims: we can’t really help you. Bad mistake. Already the suspicion abounds that a halal ban is fuelled more by prejudice than any concern for animal welfare. A ban will be widely interpreted as exclusion writ large.
Thirdly, in a bizarre juxtaposition of interests, the Children of the Promise would also be affected by a halal ban in two ways. First, Jewish folk will eat halal meat if they can’t get hold of kosher. Apparently, the ritual slaughter is much the same in both cases. More importantly, a ban on kosher slaughter would quickly follow. Britain’s Jews are suffering an even worse fate than farming. Our authorities seem wilfully oblivious to the threats they face. Ban kosher and halal and you are effectively banning religious Judaism.
Fourthly, consider the fate of all those of us who like to go shooting, hunting, fishing and beagling. Ban halal slaughter and our enemies will be further emboldened to push ahead curtailing our freedom to shoot a bird out of the sky or pull a fish from the brook. Make no mistake about it, there is a vegan agenda at work here. Which leads neatly to the fifth point:
Anyone believing in freedom of choice, freedom of expression and freedom of religion, habeas corpus, trial by jury – let alone freedom to trade, build a business or run a farm – should have no truck with further interference in hunting and farming, religion or culture.
Most people in Britain have had enough of being pushed around and told what to do and how to think. If the powers that be actually concentrated on the three basic crimes that threaten us – burglary, murder and rape – we would all be a little safer. Currently the police, apparently infiltrated by woke activists, are only too happy to go after noxious tweets, hunting offences and hurty-word crimes – as the recent prosecution and acquittal of Graham Linehan demonstrates.
Old Colin won’t see this New Year’s Eve, nor this Advent. I last saw him at an autumn meet on foot. The huntsman had put hounds into covert on the edge of a water meadow.
‘How are your hoggets doing?’ I asked, nodding at a flock of bouncing yearlings seeking indefinite leave to remain down the other end of the meadow.
‘Buoyant,’ he said, with a rare smile of satisfaction. Sheep prices did well this summer in Wales.
In the late afternoon sun, I bade him farewell.
John Musgrave is a writer and trail layer based on the Welsh borders. His pro-hunting novel ‘Corsica Girl’ is available from Amazon: Corsica Girl.