Plans to ban the import of foie gras and fur were shelved earlier this year, with the government claiming that discussions had not been dropped but rather fallen down the parliamentary pecking order. Duck, Duck, Goose.
Henry Smith, MP for Crawley, told Guido:
“We need to realise our Brexit freedoms much more in many areas, including animal welfare, with foie gras and fur imports halted, live exports too. Force feeding geese to produce a diseased, fatty liver to eat as a so-called delicacy is thoroughly un-British and rightly production is banned here, so why do we allow that cruelty to be effectively exported across the English Channel?”
Asked what he would do if he were offered a tin of foie gras or a fur coat, Smith responded: “I’d put them in one of those dinghies that have landed on our shores and push them back over to France, with a few other unwelcome imports too!” Presumably stuff like Hershey’s, Carlsberg and Covid…
The Shadow Farming and Rural Affairs minister has apologised after saying wearing fur is “the same as wearing a swastika”. David Drew said in the Commons:
“I do not understand not only why we cannot lean on the retail trade, but why people wear fur. To me it is the same as wearing a swastika.”
He later said sorry:
“I am sorry for drawing this comparison. I am passionate about animal welfare but this comparison was inappropriate and I apologise.”
Well worthy of the Order of the OTT…
