Chlorinated or not, a chicken’s life is sheer hell
In THE row over banning the importation of chicken due to contamination with chlorine (Mail), it was stated that birds are raised intensively in the U.S., as if that were not the case here.
The vast majority of the 900 million or so chickens produced annually in the UK are factory farmed, a typical flock being 40,000 birds per windowless shed.
A DEFRA spokesman says our ‘superior farming methods’ and ‘splendid welfare legislation’ are two reasons why the Government has no intention of importing sanitised U.S. chickens.
Yet half of UK chickens are contaminated with campylobacter — the number-one cause of food poisoning in humans in this country. Broiler houses have been described as the ideal breeding ground for this infection.
Do consumers have to choose between two evils: chicken treated with chlorine to kill off dangerous bacteria or continuing to run the risk of infection?
It’s not surprising the birds are sick. Crammed together in vast numbers, genetically selected for unnatural growth, they live out their short and painful lives in disgraceful conditions.
We are told that chicken will be cheaper still if it comes all the way from America. That merely confirms that U.S. methods are significantly worse than ours.
As co-founder of the pressure group Chickens’ Lib, my work involves much research into the UK poultry industry. So it’s no wonder I’ve ended up a vegan.
CLARE DRUCE, Holmfirth, W. Yorks.
HS2 must pay its way
THERE is a simple solution to the mushrooming cost of the HS2 train line: turn off the tap of taxpayers’ money that funds such projects and their extravagant publicly funded inquiries. The promoters of such schemes should bear the risks of economic failure and find their own finance to cover the costs of construction and supporting infrastructure.
Subject to the discipline of the open market, those behind such projects would ensure they were economically justified and commercially successful.
This would stop white elephant vanity schemes becoming a permanent drain on our finances. BRIAN NEWTON,
Epsom, Surrey.
Tribunal was a trial
When an ex-employee took my small business to an employment tribunal with what I considered a vindictive and spurious claim, I decided not to be cowed.
After two years, only minor damages were awarded, but the impact on my business and health was immeasurable.
My firm’s excellent record with employees was not taken into consideration. Corporation tax, VAT, stakeholder pensions, employee legislation and a ‘ because I’m worth it’ attitude from some staff make running a small business a thankless task.
Name and address supplied.
Left fuming
LEFT-HAND-DRIVE juggernauts should be banned from our roads. I was at traffic lights when a Polish lorry crushed the side of my car, shearing off the wing mirror. These container lorries are wide and there is little margin for error — the driver could not see me. SHIRLEY TIMMS,
Slough, Berks.
Funeral plan disgrace
A CLOSE relative took out a prepaid funeral plan some years before she developed dementia and went into a care home. The family knew nothing about it until after she died, when we went through her paperwork.
The insurers told us they would not meet the cost of the funeral because payments had ceased when she went into the home.
We found no reminders from the insurer, but it did appear they had sent her a pen adorned with the company’s name. So they walk into the sunset with all the money our relative paid over the years and there is no comeback.
B. Layton, Portsmouth, Hants.
A Little Ship saved!
MY LETTER was published last year about attempts to rescue a dilapidated Dunkirk Little Ship from being broken up.
Peggotty, a 37ft motor launch formally called nayland, had played a gallant part in the evacuation of 338,000 Allied troops from the Dunkirk beaches, but was eventually abandoned as uneconomical to salvage.
Readers will be pleased to hear that, thanks to the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships Restoration Trust and her new owners, Peggotty has been restored to her former glory and on September 3 will form part of a flotilla of 20 Little Ships in the Annual Veterans’ Day on the Thames.
ANDREW Courtney, Hampton Wick, London.
Naval strength
THE readers who related their relatives’ dramatic experiences at Dunkirk (Letters) reminded me of the story told by my father Harry Todd, a wartime RAF driver.
He was evacuated from Brest on June 16/17, 1940 as part of Operation Ariel, some weeks after the Dunkirk operation.
He was ordered to smash the engine block of his lorry and push it over the cliff above Brest, fouling the harbour so it couldn’t be used by the Germans.
When they got to the beach, the men had to wade out, then swim to a ship before climbing up nets thrown over the sides.
Dad said he would never forget hanging on to the net, exhausted, when an arm grabbed him by the collar, lifting him bodily upwards. A huge, very hairy seaman was walking along the rails, plucking men onto the deck.
ANN MINNETT, Blackpool. MY HUSBAND’S uncle was recently married when he took his boat down the Thames to rescue soldiers in France. With British understatement, he left a note on the mantelpiece for his new wife that read: ‘Gone to Dunkirk, have taken some sandwiches.’
Mrs L. PHILLIPS, Prestwich, Gtr Manchester.
Sold out
IT’S not just the DVLA selling personal information to private companies (Mail). I am about to move house and have been inundated with unsolicited adverts from removal companies.
Apparently, they can buy your details from the Land Registry.
What is the point of the Data Protection Act if information legally required by the Government can be sold for profit? Geoff WHIFFEN, Trowbridge, Wilts.
Too posh for Mr Cat
I’M AFRAID I can’t follow Jan Moir’s tips for a posh kitchen, thanks to my house guest, Mr Cat.
not only would dinner party delicacies have tempting aromas for him, but centrepieces of pots of lilies or cacti would be a no-no.
Mr Cat would find such table decorations too intriguing to ignore, poke his head in them, get stuck and end up hurtling around the kitchen unable to see where he was going. Mr Cat or a posh kitchen? A difficult decision! CLAIRE GILLISON,
upton, Wirral.