Reading the work of Daily Mail columnists is dangerous work, especially while drinking hot coffee. While flicking through Jan Moir's latest missive on the train this morning I fired a a steaming jet of Starbucks out of my nose when she criticised assorted MPs for fostering inequality. Commenting on the unseemly slanging match that kicked off between Angela Eagle and Nadine Dorries on Wednesday's Newsnight (they were supposed to be debating women's rights), Moir sarcastically says:"Well done all round girls. Together we are really moving forward on the equality agenda."
You read correctly. That's Jan Moir - the "journalist" who holds the proud record of penning the single most-complained about column in the history of British newspapers - complaining about other people not doing enough to foster a culture of equality in this country.What a strange and troubling thing for her to say. It must have been anything but natural for her to write it...
I have several friends and friends-of-friends who work in Civil Service press offices. In the pub on Saturday night one of them mentioned, with a groan, that the Mail on Sunday had spent the second half of the week ringing round every single government department asking them how much of the meat in their staff canteens was halal. As a life-long vegetarian I applaud the Mail group for developing a sudden interest in the finer points of animal welfare - obviously this story has NOTHING to do with the fact that halal meat is something Muslims eat. No no no. It's all about how inhumane the halal slaughter process is. To prove it, there's even an angry quote from someone at animal rights group Viva!, an organisation the Mail has not previously expressed a great deal of love for as one of its leading lights is Heather Mills. She got the full Jan Moir treatment in July when the Mail's resident hate-monger visited her vegan cafe on the south coast.Anyhow, it turned out that the vast majority of canteens in government buildings don't actually serve any halal meat as a matter of course, although most can order it in if required for specific functions and events.However, I found this out by speaking to some government press officers. You wouldn't have found it out by reading the Mail on Sunday. Its story simply listed all the places that DO serve halal meat - Wembley Stadium, some pub chains, a few hospitals and some schools - in order to prove that we're living in what the headline calls "Halal Britain"Had it emerged that every building in Whitehall was stocked to the rafters with ritually slaughtered sheep and cows, you can bet that it would have been right there in the headline. However, in Mail World if a fact doesn't fit the story, it's always best to leave it out.
