200 guests packed the Butcher's Hall in the heart of London's historic
Smithfield Meat Market for a dinner to mark the launch of The Backbone
Party. The media were much in evidence and the hope was expressed
that they would spread the message that the British public wants to keep
on eating beef and will not be dictated to by the nanny state.
Chester Boyd's chefs had prepared canapés from marrow-bone jelly on croustade toasts to go with the pre dinner drinks - bullshots - like a Bloody Mary, but made with chilled beef consomme instead of tomato juice. Then the stout hearted guests tucked into oxtail soup - a strictly illegal brew now, but as Charles Boyd explained, there is no spinal cord in oxtail, another example of how Jack Cunningham's health department has made a fool of itself.
The centrepiece of the the dinner was again whole barons of beef, hoisted aloft on a great tray by two burly butchers amid rapturous applause. There was a white wine from Duboeuf (naturally) and some very nice 1993 Hautes Cotes de Beaune. Very inpressive was a traditional Spotted Dick Pudding with custard.
In his "Maiden Speech" to the Backbone party, Charles Boyd pointed out the
stupidity of the government's untenable position. The previous night, with
their huge majority in the Commons, and under the cracking of the
Government Whips, Labour members were browbeaten into supporting this daft
measure. Cunningham himself lounged about in the Commons bar during the
debate -
too cowardly put in an appearance until the division bell sounded,
when he dutifully went to vote, for himself! Such arrogance, such inconsistency.
As Boyd pointed out, if a butcher sells a joint he can go down for two years, but if a cabinet minister's son sells one he gets away with it.
Given the lack of support for the ban both by the public, and it would now seem, many of its scientific advisers, one wonders what the real reason for such high handed action can be. "Cow-towing" to Brussels in the hope of getting the embargo lifted on British Beef exports was put forward as one possible explanation.
It may not be unreasonable to hope that the current ban of the sale of beef-on-the-bone can be lifted in a few months' time. No doubt the Government will claim that a relaxation can be made, thanks to its prudent action earlier on!
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