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Morrissey speaks out against The Bank of England's new non-vegan £5 note

five-pound-note

The Bank of England put an entirely redesigned Five Pound note into circulation in September. It’s the first to be made of plastic and has garnered controversy as the polymer contains traces of tallow, aka animal fat. This has upset a lot of vegetarians and vegans and other people, and more than 70,000 people have signed a petition to get the British government to make a tallow-free £5 note.

It will probably not surprise you to learn that Morrissey has weighed in on the issue, sending a statement, titled “United King-Dumb,” to his information conduit, TrueToYou:

If it had been revealed by the Bank of England that the new British Five Pound note contained slices of cat or dog, the country would be in an uproar. But because we have been trained to accept the vicious slaughter of cows, sheep and pigs, the UK media can only make light of the use of tallow in the new British fiver because animal slaughter is thought to be outside of the human grasp and concern. However, whether you care about animals or not, the use of their sliced bodies in the new five pound note evokes a mood and a vibration that displays a gaping hole in human intelligence and in the human race as a compassionate idea. It also tells us that the Bank Of England has no understanding of doing anything in our time that revives the human image from basic savagery. If you feel that the use of animal flesh should not be a moral issue, then you should assert your conviction by donating your own body to the Bank Of England for decorative use in future five pound notes.

In other news, there’s a new Smiths single (with unheard versions of old songs) on the way, and Morrissey’s rescheduled North American tour dates are coming up.