Mayor needs new mantra
ANDY Burnham will have to find another mantra after recent events.
The idea that this government punishes the north and gives preferential treatment to London and the south has been overturned with the introduction of Tier 4 in London, the South East and East.
If Burnham had put Manchester into Tier 3 when advised to we would be in Tier 2 now like Liverpool and Cheshire. We then come to the hypocrisy surrounding the cancelling of Christmas by the government. For the past fortnight the media, chat shows and the public have discussed the government’s decision to allow people to have a five-day Christmas break and the general consensus has been it is a mistake as it would increase the infection rate.
Now that the government has cancelled it altogether in Tier 4 areas and reduced it to a day in other Tiers there is an outcry by some in the media that people deserve to have a Christmas get together. Two columnists I usually respect argue that people who have shielded for months should be allowed to have family around them at Christmas. And they say that the government gives out confusing messages.
There is so much importance being placed on the idea of families getting together at Christmas this year because of the pandemic. Isn’t it a bit of a myth? People joke that they have to be sociable with relatives they don’t see from one year to another – but behind the fake smile it is the truth.
Jack Haynes, Swinton rumours of food shortages ahead of Christmas, let’s hope one item in particular is in short supply this year: fatty, diseased bird liver, otherwise known as foie gras.
On French foie gras farms, workers repeatedly ram pipes down the throats of gentle ducks and geese, pumping huge amounts of grain into their stomachs until their livers swell to up to 10 times their normal size, pressing against their lungs and making it hard for them to breathe. Force-feeding is among the cruellest of all the things done to animals on today’s factory farms – which is saying something. The practice is illegal in the UK, but inexplicably, selling the products of force-feeding is not.
This Christmas, let’s vote with our wallets and show compassion to all by rejecting this unpalatable cruelty and opting for one of the many tasty and animal-friendly vegan pâtés on the market.
Elisa Allen, Director, PETA Foundation