SIR – Yet another furore over halal meat – not from the usual direction this time, but meat traders being asked to pay fees for special certification to some unofficial body few have ever heard of – a cost which they do not need in today’s trading conditions.

However, problems like this could easily be overcome by the Government insisting that all food products be subject only to the same UK standards of certification. Religious freedom is to this country’s credit, but principles drawn up hundreds of years ago in far-away places, have no place in Great Britain, where Parliament has made laws governing animal welfare on farms, humane slaughter procedures in abattoirs and food hygiene in shops etc, which ought to be applied equally.

Prayers etc said over food at any stage of production are fully acceptable, but exemptions to these laws or special certification is an insult to everyone, and I have sympathy with all those Islamic traders just trying to make a living.

D S Boyes, Rodley Lane, Leeds