A recent report in a broadsheet newspaper suggested that three out of 10 meals purchased are now vegan or vegetarian.
I just wonder which pollster came up with these figures, or is it merely those people who profess to be veggies flexing their muscles in order to promote their ideology? Given that according to recognised statisticians in this country two per cent are vegetarians – with half of these vegan as well – it could be that these people must be eating 15 times more food than the rest of us to make the figures stack up, and to have a fulfilling diet.
Even in America where food is god, a survey found that only 3.2% were either vegetarian or vegan. I accept there are individuals who find killing animals for food abhorrent, but there are equally vast tranches of people who are misguided in their belief that they can save the planet by surviving on soya.
Which animals are going to graze and use the hills and mountain sides where soya cannot be grown? Which products can possibly replace the enormous array of medicines that are derived from animal products? Nearly every pill we swallow to protect our health is encased in gelatine – derived from the slaughter of beef animals. Who is going to tell the numerous tribes that live in parched areas of Africa or the Inuit in the Artic that they can no longer kill animals to provide food, clothing, shelter, and indeed currency? This band of misguided brothers and sisters who can see no further than the end of their noses are selfish to the core. Oh and I nearly forgot – activists in Kent insist that a local cinema showing Peppa Pig to children desist from selling ham sandwiches during the interval! Pathetic.
Despite government figures showing that crime is on the decrease – an absolute lie – every news bulletin, national or local, reports on crime and little else. Could it be that because minors who commit a crime are not able to be named, they have four or five years of committing mayhem before they are able to be brought to book and exposed?
It seems they can legally have children from the age of 16, they can be caught driving a vehicle on the highway and merely given a ban on driving until they can legally do so, they can watch inappropriate acts on their smartphones at an age which precludes them from being named for doing the same, and they can get as drunk as skunks without paying the penalty. The law in this country needs to catch up. Why are the parents not punished for their children’s misdeeds?
I realise that trying to strike a deal with the European Union is like trying to catch an eel in a bucket of oil, but surely somebody in our negotiating team must realise that Barnier is on the back foot. The second he suggested that the EU would ground our aircraft if we did not toe the line made it quite apparent that he was scared stiff of the prospect of the UK abandoning the EU. I’m not at all sure that he consulted Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal and France on the damage such a ban would do to their respective tourist industries because for goodness sake – it’s all that Greece has got! The man is a bully, a lunatic and no politician – yet we seem afraid to confront him. Who has got the guts to confront him? Barnier’s threats are akin to management refusing to do the ironing if I don’t make the bed!
On that topic, management and I went to see the “Darkest Hour” – a depiction of Winston Churchill persuading the British people to go to war against Germany. The conviction and bloody mindedness shown by that character is without doubt something totally lacking in our leaders today. We do not need to go to war again but we must make a decent fist of standing up for ourselves – as the electorate has demanded.
