We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Ban the inhumane practice of halal slaughter in the UK.
On the subject of farmed animal slaughter, defra state 'it is an absolute offence to cause or permit an animal avoidable excitement, pain or suffering. There are also specific rules on handling, stunning, slaughter or killing of animals.'
The religious slaughter of animals without prior stunning is permitted in the UK. The laws governing animal welfare at slaughter in both the EU and UK require animals to be stunned before slaughter, but make an exemption from this requirement for religious slaughter carried out by Jews and Muslims.
The Government recognises the needs of certain communities and accepts the importance which they attach to the right to slaughter animals for food in accordance with their beliefs.
When animals are slaughtered, the process must be humane and comply with the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations 1995, as amended governing animal welfare at slaughter. When, for reasons of religion, animals are not stunned before slaughter, the operation must be carried out without causing unnecessary suffering, and in compliance with specific controls.
Religious slaughter may only take place in licensed slaughterhouses (approved premises), and Official Veterinarians of the Food Standards Agency monitor and enforce the rules set out in the Regulations daily.
The Government is aware that the slaughter of animals without prior stunning is an issue in which many people and organisations are interested, and, as such, will continue to engage with interested parties in order to find a way forward that is acceptable to those concerned.
For those of you not familiar with halal slaughter please watch the clip above. Be warned that it is graphic and extremely disturbing to see animals treated in this way. This is more proof that islam is not compatable with Britain.
Even foreigners settled here say we should close the doors.
When is the government going to address the issue? They won't because they have created a climate where anyone who questions immigration is classed as racist.
The picture is of Unite the union's Esher Place mansion in Surrey.
The mansion, modelled on a French chateau and valued at £100million, is set in 8 acres of land, has 56 bedrooms and a bar.
It is supposedly used as a training and conference centre but is mainly used for weekend breaks for union top brass attending Sandown Park - the racecourse - and 'shopping breaks'. The weekends are so popular it is fully booked for the remainder of this year.
But now, local residents are up in arms, as Unite have hired architects to plan an 'annexe' complete with an extra 36 bedrooms and roof terrace.
There is a covenant that states there can be no hotel accomodation on the estate, but more and more Unite members fancy a taste of the good life and the locals want to know why another 36 bedrooms need to be added.
Voter fraud could determine the outcome of the general election as
evidence emerges of massive postal vote rigging. Police have launched 50 criminal inquiries nationwide amid widespread
cases of electoral rolls being packed with ‘bogus’ voters.
Officials report a flood of postal vote applications in marginal seats.
With the outcome of the closest election in a generation hanging in the
balance, a few thousand ‘stolen’ votes there could determine who wins the keys
to Downing Street.
Anti-sleaze campaigner Martin Bell said: ‘There is actually a
possibility that the result of the election could be decided by electoral
fraud. That’s pretty grim.
‘We are facing a situation where we can no longer trust the integrity of
our electoral system. It was a huge mistake to extend the postal vote. It
opened up our system to all kinds of frauds.’
Out of a total estimated electorate of 46million, 7million have
registered for postal votes.
The Metropolitan Police are examining 28 claims of major abuses across
12 boroughs - with four separate investigations in Tower Hamlets, East London. Labour supporters stand accused of packing the electoral roll at the
last minute with relatives living overseas or simply inventing phantom voters.
Officials in Tower Hamlets received 5,166 new registrations just before
the April 20 deadline, and there has been no time to check them all.
In Bethnal Green, it is feared the electoral register has been
deliberately stacked with fictitious names.
Yesterday the Mail visited one four-bedroom flat in the area where 18
men are apparently claiming a vote, all of whom registered within the past
month.
The students living there were baffled by many of the names said to be
residing with them. Another resident was surprised to learn that eight complete
strangers were also registered as living in the small flat she shares with her
partner.
Other addresses investigated by the Mail were linked to the Labour
Party.
At a property in Rainhill Way, Bethnal Green, where Labour Party council
election candidate Khales Uddin Ahmed lives with his family, seven adults have
suddenly joined the electoral roll.
A few streets away, where Labour councillor Shiria Khatun is seeking
re-election, her household has been boosted by three new voter registrations at
her small flat within the past few weeks. Her husband angrily slammed the door when questions were asked
yesterday.
The Mail’s Richard Kay has learned that for the first time ever the
Commonwealth is dispatching a group of election monitors – more used to
supervising banana republics – to scrutinise the results on Thursday.
Opposition parties fear a concerted effort is being made to swing the
election.
Tower Hamlets Conservative councillor Peter Golds said: ‘There is
increasing evidence of ongoing electoral corruption. I am concerned that there
will be no attempt to investigate this before election day.
‘All the dodgy addresses seem to involve Bangladeshi names, and the
police are terrified of investigating that community for fear of being branded
racists. At one of the addresses, a Russian woman answers the door. How many
Bangladeshi men live together with a Russian woman?’
Numerous other examples of this corruption are coming to light,
including a visitor from Bangladesh who arrives with a tourist visa next week,
but whose postal vote has already been sent off.
The problem is not confined to London. In Yorkshire, five police
investigations are under way in Bradford and Calderdale, where two arrests have
been already been made.
In Derby, police are investigating several claims of electoral fraud,
including one case where a female voter was allegedly intimidated by three men
who demanded that she fill in and sign postal votes for the Labour Party.
In Surrey, Tory activists have received reports that two members of a
rival party pretended to be Conservatives and bullied a man on a ventilator in
hospital into signing over his postal vote to them.
Under election law, anyone from Commonwealth countries can vote in the
general election if resident in the UK.
But names can be added to the electoral roll – and become eligible for
postal votes – without anyone checking their identities or whether they are
actually in the country.
In 2005 around 15 per cent of all votes were cast using a postal vote,
but the Electoral Commission watchdog believes that figure will rise this time.
In the last month there were 150,000 applications and, in some areas,
postal vote registrations have increased by 200 per cent since 2005.
Surveys of the most marginal seats, where the election will be decided,
have revealed a surge in postal voting.
In the key marginals Edinburgh South and Barnet, postal votes are up by 60%, while Brighton has seen an increase of 40% in voter
registration.
In Islington, a vital Labour-Lib Dem marginal, the numbers on the
electoral roll have increased by nearly 20,000 to 135,800 in just five years.
The Electoral Commission, which oversees the elections process, warned
seven years ago that widespread postal voting is open to fraud.
But rules to ensure that every voter has to provide personal ID before
joining the electoral roll will not come into force for three years.
Daily Mail
Harriett Harmen reveals the real reason why the government want to change the way voting works - to keep out the BNP!
Harman revealed on TV that the electoral reform will mean BNP will need 50%+ of the vote to be elected. Clearly the motivation for electoral reform is to exclude the BNP from Westminster and deny their voters a voice.
The following is an article by Leo McKinstry of the Express and I have to stress that this is what we have been saying for a long, long time...
In its desperation to cling on to power, Labour’s abuse of office has become outrageous.
Gordon Brown’s Government increasingly resembles one of those discredited and corrupt regimes of the former Eastern bloc: aggressively partisan, contemptuous of democracy and blind to any distinction between the interests of the party and those of the nation.
A key hallmark of totalitarian Communist rule was its obsession with trying to indoctrinate
the public through political propaganda. Until recently, the idea that such an approach might be adopted in Britain would have seemed laughable.
But all that has changed under Labour. The years of Blair and Brown have been dominated by spin. The machine of the state is now devoted to the imposition of socialist ideology.
The airwaves and billboards are filled with Left-wing propaganda dressed up as public information or as “awareness-raising” programmes. Two incidents over the weekend brought home to me the extent of the naked political bias in the public sector.
First I was in a newsagents when I noticed a large pile of glossy brochures near the cash tills. The publication was entitled Britain In 2010 and the cover was full of such classic Brownite slogans as: “the road to economic recovery”; “lower carbon growth for a greener planet”; and “making tough choices”. I genuinely thought for a moment that this was an advance version of Labour’s election manifesto.
ONLY on closer inspection did I find that it was actually a booklet from a quango called the Economic and Social Research Council, which has an annual budget of £181million paid for, of course, by the taxpayer. It is all too typical of the modern quangocracy that it should be so eager to adopt the language and outlook of the Labour Government.
The second incident was even worse. Looking through some political blogs on the internet I came across a disgraceful video clip posted by a primary school in Hackney.
This featured a group of young children who had been instructed by their teacher to chant a rap song eulogising the local Labour MP, the highly controversial Left-winger Diane Abbott. In this nauseating performance the pupils sang of Diane Abbott’s wonderful achievements, including her campaigns for equality and women’s rights. Once they had finished they held up large pictures of Abbott’s beaming socialist visage. It was just like something out of the People’s Communist republic of North Korea.
It is a depressing sign of how far the state education sector has succumbed to Labour’s dogma that a teacher could actually think this flagrant Left-wing indoctrination is acceptable in our schools.
The same teacher, so brimming with righteous zeal, so anxious to supplicate his socialist masters, would no doubt be appalled at the idea of a group of private school pupils chanting praises to a local Tory MP.
These two cases are just part of the pattern of civic life in Labour’s Britain. Never before in our history have we had a Government so fixated with brainwashing and lecturing the public. The state is now by far Britain’s largest advertiser.
Last year, Brown’s ministers spent no less than £540million of our money on commercials, an increase of 43 per cent on 2008 and as the election approaches the problem is getting worse.
In addition, the number of spin doctors in government has quadrupled since Labour came to power. There are now about 4,000 officials in Whitehall – costing more than £220million – whose job is to communicate the Government’s message.
So much of this vast publicity drive is nothing more than Labour propaganda. Only last week the independent watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority announced a ban on the Home Office’s £5million campaign for something called the “Policing Pledge”, which is designed to give the illusion that the Government is doing something about crime.
As the ASA pointed out, the Home Office’s claim in its adverts that the police spend 80 per cent of their time on the beat is blatantly misleading when the real figure is less than 14 per cent.
Similarly, the ASA ordered a ban on a series of Government commercials about global warming based on children’s nursery rhymes, whose only purpose was to soften up the public for more green taxes and state intervention.
BUT such setbacks will not halt Labour. Deceit and spin are woven into the fabric of the Government’s operations. The impartiality of the civil service has been obliterated. Whitehall publicity is now indistinguishable from Labour output, as can be seen in the current official campaign Building Britain’s Future.
Though this has been presented as an impartial public strategy, in truth it is pure electioneering for Labour. “Thanks to our active intervention the economy is recovering and families have received much needed help,” it trumpets.
The state has been turned into a subsidised arm of the Labour movement. The public propagandists see their primary duty not as serving the British people but as challenging “the forces of conservatism”, to use the notorious phrase of Tony Blair’s.
If Labour wins again it will be partly due to the success of their indoctrination programme.
Three pence in every pound that goes into the National Health Service is wasted, official figures revealed today.
The latest productivity data reveals billions of pounds is being squandered every year with eye-watering amounts thrown away on extra staff that were not needed or poured into excessive pay rises for doctors. Critics said the revelations are a damning indictment of Labour's stewardship of the Health Service during its 13 years in power. And the situation is getting worse according to the figures from the Office for National Statistics which show the decline in productivity in 2008 was more than double the level the year before.
NHS spending rose soared between 2001, when it was £43billion, and 2008, when it was almost £100billion - fulfilling Tony Blair's pledge that the amount spent should be on a par with other western European countries.
Much of this was funded by a 1p increase in National Insurance, but the ONS figures show that although many more services were provided for this money, the taxpayer did not get quite as much as it paid for.
Every year between 2001 and 2008, productivity fell by an average of 0.4 per cent a year - adding up to a 3 per cent fall in productivity by 2008.
It means that, by 2008, taxpayers were getting 3 per cent less in terms of operations, tests and appointments than they should have done if all the money had been spent properly. This indicates that around £3billion is effectively now being wasted every year.
In contrast, before the extra money was pumped in, between 1995 and 2001, productivity remained broadly stable, with the amount going in never exceeding the outputs - indicating that the Health Service was spending its limited resources much more wisely.
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'This fall in efficiency has cost taxpayers a fortune, and puts the lie to the Government’s boasts about public spending. By focusing on spending more rather than making sure the budget was spent well, they have squandered billions of pounds. The NHS must now improve efficiency and give taxpayers a better deal, which will save money and improve patient care.'
There are worrying signs the situation is getting worse.
In 2008, productivity declined by 0.7 per cent compared to the previous year. This is more than double the 2007 fall of 0.3 per cent.
Three years ago, MPs lambasted the 'reckless and uncontrolled' recruitment of too many doctors and nurses. The health select committee said an 'appalling' lack of planning by the Government meant that trusts recruited far more staff than they could afford to pay. They took on record numbers of doctors and nurses between 2000 and 2004, when money was readily available - only for thousands to be laid off after 2005 as deficits began to bite.
Money was thrown at new staff but there was little effort to ensure they were being more productive. In many cases, it meant that staff were taken on but simply ended up doing the same amount of work as was taking place before.
The NHS Plan, published in 2000, said there was a need for 20,000 extra nurses by 2004. Instead, almost 68,000 were employed.
GP numbers swelled by more than 4,000 - double the number planned.
New pay contracts for NHS staff also cost much more than expected.
For example, in 2004/05, the GP contract cost £250million more, consultants £90million, while the Agenda for Change package, which covers nurses and other NHS staff, overspent by £220million.
The new contract for GPs, for example, has seen their pay rise by 47 per cent to an average of £106,000. But at the same time, the amount of work they are actually doing has fallen:by some seven hours a week. And more than 90 per cent of them have opted out of responsibility for patients out of hours - leaving it up to primary care trusts to bring in expensive cover which is often substandard.
But the Government points to improvements in waiting times and survival rates, which it says would not have happened without vast increases in resources.
Health minister Mike O'Brien said: 'In 1997, the NHS was severely under staffed and under funded.
‘We have had to address this under staffing and that has affected productivity. We can now deliver the shortest waiting times in the history of the NHS and a major reduction in death rates and health care associated infections, whilst improving quality and seeing and treating more patients than ever. Most economists and HM Treasury accept it is difficult to grow capacity and productivity at the same time, yet the NHS maintained virtually flat productivity (-0.3 per cent per annum) over the longest period of sustained growth in its history.' DAILY MAIL
Under the Representation of the People Act 2000, armed forces personnel have a choice of putting their names on the electoral roll through the Services or as civilians.
But if they take the former route, they must re-register every year rather than being able to register once for the whole of their military career.
As a result of the requirement to sign annually, the number of service personnel registering fell from 139,000 to 21,000.
Indeed, critics of the system have pointed out the bitter irony that while troops have been fighting to help give democracy to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, they themselves have been unable to exercise similar rights.
In order to try to highlight this scandal, the Conservative frontbench spokesman (and former SAS soldier) Andrew Robathan conducted a straw poll of British troops in Iraq in 2005 and found that not only were eight out of ten not registered to vote but they also did not have any idea of the rules.
In fact, only a relatively small percentage of the Armed Forces voted in the 2005 General Election.
Now, with a General Election barely seven weeks away, the same thing seems likely to happen again.
Disgracefully, Labour ministers were warned that the law discriminated against servicemen and women. Douglas Young, of the British Armed Forces Federation, published a brilliant document called Silence In The Ranks, which revealed the scale of the problem.
Then, in November 2005, the Tory MP Andrew Tyrie proposed that every member of Armed Forces should be given the automatic right to vote. However, the idea
rejected by the Labour government, which made one concession: the law would be altered so servicemen would only have to register once every five years. This change was an improvement but failed to deal properly with the problem.
This mess is compounded by the fact that even those fighting abroad who have a vote find the system very tricky.
Under electoral law, the closing date for parliamentary candidates to put their names forward to fight a constituency is only 11 days before polling day.
Next, postal ballot forms (with names of all the candidates) have to be printed — a process which normally takes up to three days.
The ballots must then be flown, for example, to Afghanistan and distributed to the isolated Forward Operating Bases in areas such as Helmand Province where many of our troops are based.
Only then can soldiers cast their vote, before the ballots are sent back to Britain in time to be counted.
The Army Families Federation recently carried out an experiment to see how efficiently this postal ballot system worked for forces based in Germany.
She explained her own experience.
‘When my husband and I were stationed in Germany, the postal vote arrived on time only once. We had to go to extraordinary lengths to vote. I wonder how many others would go to that trouble.’
To be fair to the Government, Justice Minister Michael Wills set up a ‘working party’ to examine the problem in January.
But this was much too late — for with just two weeks before the election is due to be called, the group has yet to report its findings.
The truth is that if Gordon Brown’s government had shown any real interest in making sure the rights of British troops were upheld, it would never have set up a working party so late in the day.
Instead, right and proper voting entitlements and facilities would have been a priority many years earlier — just like in the American and Canadian armed forces.
Instead, it now looks certain that, for the second General Election in a row, many of our fighting men and women will be denied the chance to vote.
Most worryingly, this raises the very troubling question of whether Gordon Brown’s government’s failure to allow democratic representation to our Armed Forces is merely down to incompetence.
Or is there some other more sinister reason?
Could it be that New Labour’s electoral strategists cynically calculated that the majority of servicemen are more likely to be Tory voters — and have deliberately deprived them of the vote?
It is impossible to say for sure.
However, what can be stated with certainty is that as well as starving the Armed Forces of funds and sending men and women into battle with inadequate equipment, it has also denied many of them one of the most fundamental rights of citizenship.
At the forthcoming election, a number of our bravest fighting men — many of them risking their lives to bring democracy to Afghanistan — will themselves be Disenfranchised.
And for a nation such as Britain, with a glorious military history, that is a most terrible betrayal.
Since the British National Party's membership was reopened last Friday over 1,000 new people have joined.
Listen to Nick Griffin's speech (above) in Sutton-In-Ashfield last Sunday to see just why people are joining the only party true to Britain and her people.
Mr Balls said he wanted to know if the current situation struck "the right balance between allowing independent schools autonomy, operating in accordance with their ethos and values, and protecting the young people attending those schools from teachers displaying racist or intolerant views or behaviours that could be harmful".
He said there was "no place for racism in our schools" but that the report made it clear that incidences of teachers promoting racism were "extremely rare".
Mr Balls said last year he wanted this review to see if there were sufficient powers available "to keep racism and BNP activity out of schools".
British National Party leader Nick Griffin said at the time his members were victims of "political oppression".
Racist remarks
The NASUWT union, which has campaigned to have BNP members banned from schools, said it was disappointed by the review's findings.
General secretary Chris Keates said the report was "an opportunity that's been missed" to bring teachers into line with police and prison officers.
"The idea that a person who signs up to membership of the BNP can simply leave these beliefs at the school gate and behave as a 'professional' when they walk into school is risible, " said Ms Keates.
"The report is woefully inadequate and littered with contradictions."
She said too much attention was paid to the number of incidents in schools, saying "one incident is one too many".
Only six incidences of BNP membership by members of the teaching profession or governors were brought to the attention of the Department for Children, Schools and Families in six years, the report said.
It also found only nine incidents where teachers making racist remarks or holding racist materials had been referred to the General Teaching Council for England.
But the Association of School and College Leaders welcomed the findings.
Its general secretary Dr John Dunford said: "Of course people with racist views should not be working with young people in schools. However, it is much less clear that there should be a blanket regulation on the issue.
"The aim should be genuinely to challenge young people to think for themselves and to form their own opinions rather than to promote a particular ideology."
The review into independent schools will report in September.
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey today accused politicians of trying to bully Christianity out of public life.
He complained of a 'strident and bullying campaign' to marginalise Christianity in the name of political correctness.
Lord Carey said: 'We have reached the point where politicians are mocked for merely expressing their faith.
'I cannot imagine any politician expressing concern that Britain should remain a Christian country. That reticence is a scandal and a disgrace to our history.'
The powerful intervention from the retired Archbishop, who stepped down from Lambeth Palace in 2002, comes in the wake of strongly-expressed criticism of state attempts to sideline Christianity from other senior prelates.
Last month Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu said that Christianity was being pushed out of public life in a 'ferocious and insidious' manner.
Lord Carey has spoken out strongly on a number of controversial matters since his retirement in a way he avoided while serving as the Anglican primate. In particular, he has backed limits to immigration, criticised Islamic theology, and attacked the 'anything goes' philosophy that has led judges to constrain public debate about the bad behaviour of celebrities for the sake of their privacy.
He told a meeting in the House of Lords: 'Christianity, which has given so much to our country, is now being sidelined as never before as though it is a stranger to our nation.'
Lord Carey told Christians to stand up for their faith and to be more assertive when their heritage is attacked.
'If we behave like doormats, don't be surprised if we are treated as though we are,' he said. 'It is time to return to the public square.'
Lord Carey echoed Dr Sentamu's concerns that the rights of Christian schools to teach the basis of their faith is being stripped away.
'This bullying campaign seeks to ban faith schools, despite evidence that faith schools perform better than many others.'
He added: 'It is clear that we must stand up against the marginalising of faith.
'We must constantly remind society of its Christian roots and heritage.'
Lord Carey was addressing a conference run by the Christian Broadcasting Council which highlighted cases of individuals picked on for their Christian faith.
They included teacher Olive Jones who lost her job last year after offering to pray for a 14-year-old cancer patient with whom she was working, and Caroline Petrie, a Somerset nurse suspended for offering to pray for a patient but then reinstated by NHS bosses following a public outcry.
Speakers also cited Gary McFarlane, a Relate counsellor who lost his job after he declined to offer sex therapy to a gay couple.
Olave Snelling, chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Council, said: 'We have the duty of telling the stories of those suffering persecution for their faith overseas and now, it seems, in Great Britain also.
'Pressure is building against Christians in what was once a Christian land.'
