The story was based on a Freedom of Information request from the paper and followed up by the Telegraph and the Mail.
The Sun's 'exclusive' by Tom Wells began:
Whitehall chiefs paid a PR firm £45,000 to teach gypsies about an EU rule asking people to promise not to EAT their horses.
However, while the Sun and Mail articles are still live, the Telegraph's has been deleted. Why?
Well, it might have something to do with this statement put out by the 'Whitehall chiefs' at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
Myth bust: Marketing campaign on Horse Identification rules
The myth: The Sun and Daily Telegraph have suggested that Defra funded a marketing campaign to ask travellers not to eat their own horses.
The truth: It was nothing to do with eating horses. The campaign explained changes to EU rules which meant owners needed to have their foals and any previously unidentified horses micro-chipped when they applied for horse passports. This was to improve disease control and help prevent the export of contaminated meat. No part of the campaign involved asking the owners to promise not to eat horse meat.
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But hey, why let the facts get in the way of spreading prejudice and lies?
ReplyDeleteIt's a pity the Sun and the Telegraph couldn't leave the EU.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see 'em leave it directly upward, trailing smoke. But we can't have everything.
ReplyDeleteI thought horsemeat was legal to eat in the UK anyway, as long as it was properly labelled.
ReplyDeleteSurely this is especially obviously bogus, in that there are parts of the EU where it is perfectly acceptable, both legally and socially, to eat horse.
ReplyDeleteAnd rather tasty it is too.
So, as logic dictates, in about 6 months the Express front page should be:
ReplyDelete"FURY AS EU SAYS NAAAAY TO GYPSIES EATING HORSE"
"FURY AS EU SAYS NAAAAY TO GYPSIES EATING HORSE"
ReplyDeletemore like
"FURY AS EU SAYS GYPSIES MUST EAT HORSE"
Nay-sayers aside (geddit?) I actually own a horse and when you fill in your application for a horse passport there's a bit on the form which asks if it's for human consumption or not. The need for a horse passport comes from Europe as I remember it and was brought in some years ago (which affected anyone who owns horses/ponies/zebras (yup, I didn't believe it at first either) etc). I suspect what The Sun has done is to link the PR campaign about gipsies and horse microchipping and passports to one part of the relevant Euro reg and hey presto, you have a story. So not very palatable to the government, granted, and a bit of a stretch, but not strictly inaccurate either.
ReplyDeleteI know it's standard practice to use 'gypsy' and 'traveller' interchangeably, or to make no distinction between actual Romanies and everyone else... but it's stupider than usual, because for many Romanies there's a significant taboo against eating horsemeat.
ReplyDelete