 Our campaign against Unstund Slaughter is very much still underway and I really want to thank everyone who has gotten involved so far. If you haven't gotten involved so far and you would like to go to forbritain.uk slash halal you'll find a huge amount of information absolutely excellent resource forbritain.uk slash halal and I want to thank people who've handed out thousands of leaflets that have been distributed so far and also our members and supporters who have written to their MP, written to the local school and let us know the results. Now I have so many responses sent to us thank you so much so I won't be able to get through them all but I do want to take you through one this morning which is from a minister's response. So this was sent to me by Sarah who wrote to her MP who in turn wrote to the relevant minister who wrote back to that MP. So I want to read you well first of all I'm not going to read the letter in full but I will link to it below the letter we sent that we asked our members to send and in it we asked them to confirm whether or not they believe it's an infringement on religious freedom too forcefully and it is forcefully because there's no choice. Feed halal for example and it is halal. Kosher was not served up in schools in this way. To serve halal to say Christian children and the fact that this meat comes with a blessing from the Islamic God may cause theological moral problems for devout Christians and whether or not they believed that this was an infringement on the religious liberty of the Christian parents. We asked very specific questions of this. Asking very specific questions I like to do because it's a glaring highlight in their response when they refuse to answer that specific question. So let me get to the email. The email response from Theodore Agnew who is the parliamentary undersecretary of state for the school system and he writes thank you thank you etc. He does reply he does say I am replying as the minister responsible for this policy area so that's quite clear. Here's the letter. The government encourages the highest standards of animal welfare. We would prefer all animals to be stunned before slaughter. I actually had an interesting chat with one of our members Matthew about this recently. We would prefer all animals to be stunned before slaughter. Prefer is that it just it doesn't get much weaker or more cowardly than we would prefer. It's almost a well we would like people to not engage in barbaric cruelty but you know what are you gonna do? It's such such a cop out and as Matthew pointed out in that interesting discussion that we had they're basically doing the same thing when it comes to FGM or child marriage or all the other horrific abuses. Well we would prefer if this didn't happen but what are you gonna do? So the next sentence tells us more. We also respect the rights of Jews and Muslims to eat meat prepared in accordance with their beliefs and again as Matthew pointed out what about the rights of Muslims to marry their children in accordance with their beliefs? Look where does this end? Where does respect for their beliefs end? Because people have different beliefs and some of those beliefs are criminal offences in Great Britain so where does respect end and the law begin? Good question. One we're not going to get an answer to. It goes on EC regulation 1099-2009 sets down the welfare standards for animals at the time of killing including regulations specifically regarding animals which are slaughtered without stunning. In addition to these EU level requirements the government has adopted stricter national regulations for animals that are slaughtered without stunning which provide them with more extensive protections than the EU regulation. These are set down in the welfare of animals at time of killing England regulations 2015. I'll get to those in a minute. Now remember this is a school provision minister. This is what he goes on to say. Regarding the provision of halal meat in schools schools may consider providing both halal and non halal food or ensuring that dishes are clearly labelled to allow pupils to select the appropriate choice. Head teachers, governors and their caterers are best placed to make these decisions regarding school food provision. In doing so we expect schools to act reasonably taking into account religious cultural and dietary needs and working with parents to make appropriate arrangements. Now we already know that parents have been accused of racism, Islamophobia, bigotry etc etc for objecting to the provision of halal meat but look at the difference in language here. From we prefer animals to be stunned without slaughter we get to we expect schools to act reasonably and take culture into account. Is that acting reasonably? Very vague, very ill-defined but the difference in language there we prefer versus we expect is quite significant. It goes on to say schools should consult with parents when making changes to school food provision. We already know that parents are told that their school is becoming halal only and many have been called Islamophobes for objecting. So we school should consult with parents when making changes to school food provision and ensure parents have access to information on the food provided. This bit particularly I don't know if laugh is the right reaction but you can only laugh sometimes. If parents are not happy with the food provided by the school they can take it up with the school and consider using the school's complaints policy. So the Secretary of State for school provision is washing his hands of this entirely doesn't answer the question we asked about freedom of religion and freedom of conscience for example for people who object on animal welfare grounds no answer to these questions at all. We prefer animals to be stunned we expect culture to be considered and if the parents don't like it well take it up with the school what do I care? And he finishes with we do not routinely collect information about the types of meat schools are buying and serving. In their schools meals service it's exhausting it really is these politicians are so weak but let me get on to the piece of legislation that he referred to in which he says gives greater protections to animals than EU regulations do and this is the welfare of animals at the time of killing regulations. So it does nothing nothing at all and I of course will link to to this below. It absolutely does nothing to protect animals other than to make sure that a bovine animal which in our case will be a cow is standing upright in a restraining pen when its throat is cut. So you will see and I will link to this below as well and we used stills from these videos for our campaign that the when being slaughtered I've got a cold the care when being slaughtered is held in this contraption unable to to move but still fully alert awake and conscious while its throat is cut that's what the greater protection of the welfare of animals at the time of killing regulations provide and it asks that the knife be nice and sharp that's it that's that's their answer that's the greater protection they provide. I you know it's it's sometimes you're lost for words and once again I'm somewhat lost for words we ask specific question to the minister responsible he avoided those questions he put we pointed out that our concern was that the animal was alert and awake and conscious at the time of slaughter and this was causing immense and intense suffering for these animals the response of the minister responsible for this area sends us some legislation which does nothing to address that particular point the very point we are raising his answer doesn't address this is who governs us they don't feel any need to answer our questions they produce legislation that does nothing we have reams and reams of legislation that achieves nothing at all other than to provide excuses and evasion and just flim flam to politicians to throw at people when they raise questions we deserve better we need better one day we will have better because for Britain will provide it if you care about this join us if you want to get involved animals have no voice let's give them one