Leslie,Do you actually have any reason to believe that there are specific laws or rules which say food outlets serving non-halal meat must close earlier than those which serve halal meat?“If it is racist to say "I'm white, C of E so where is the take away for my indigenous culture at night" then so be it, call me a racist.”I don’t think anybody could reasonably call you a racist for asking that question. But you said a few other things.You ask: “What is different to say, the former chip shop on the Boston Parade, and the Chicken Spot opposite Northfields station?”. And that’s a valid question. The answer might be that there’s a racist conspiracy against white-skinned chip eaters (I’m pretty sure Muslims eat chips made from potatoes slaughtered in much the same manner as non-Muslims), or it might be that the chip shop closed earlier because being in a much less busy area, it wasn’t economically sensible to open until later.You suggested that non-halal options have “been taken from us”. That suggests a deliberate process. I can’t imagine how you think this might have happened. Anybody is free to set up and run a business offering the options you would prefer. Given the voraciously capitalist society we live it, doesn’t the lack of such options within a specific area suggest either that there isn’t enough demand to justify running a business purely on that basis, or that nobody cares about the difference enough to make the effort? Why would you instead come to the conclusion that it is “reverse racism”?I don’t believe there is some kind of racist conspiracy to prevent white working class “indigenous” people from being able to eat the cheap, poor-quality meat of intensively farmed animals which are killed by non-halal methods, as opposed to the cheap, poor-quality meat of intensively farmed animals killed by halal methods. And quite frankly, for those who oppose halal and/or kosher meat being served in fast food outlets purely on the basis of animal welfare, there really isn’t much difference between the two. The method and moment of death is nothing compared to the mercifully brief lifetime of cruelty which are suffered by most animals which end up in fast food outlets (and also the refrigerated sections of high street supermarkets) regardless of how they were slaughtered.One could potentially argue the case for lamb, as lamb is generally much less intensively farmed, but there’s little pride to be felt in eating non-halal chicken which has been raised in the most disturbing, nightmarish intensive conditions. As somebody who has a weakness for fried chicken, it’s not really the method of slaughter that bothers me. It’s the way the animals live which is more important, and the animals which end up in those outlets are better off dead, by any method. If somebody would open an Organic Fried Chicken nearby, I’d be their best customer, and a lot fatter.You also seem to suggest that this apparent withdrawal of non-halal options being forced on the late evening drinking public (which it isn’t) could be the cause for the “behaviour problems” of “people who've been on the beer all evening, often drunk with no way of soaking up that beer until we get home”. This is a depressing thing to suggest. The behaviour problems of drunk people leaving the pub are the fault of those drunk people, not of local food outlets.
M. Duley ● 4998d