The Jilin Deda Factory situated at Road 102 in Dehui City in China is one of the largest poultry-processing plants in the world where each year 100 million birds are slaughtered, plucked, dismembered and packaged. The processed chicken meat is exported to twenty other countries including Switzerland, Germany, South Africa, Russia and Japan.

It is sold in bulk either for further processing…the company has two ready-food processing factories…or for subsequent distribution to shops. The one million square metre operation employing more than 11 000 staff is located in Jilin Province…one of China’s poorest…hard up against the borders of Russia and North Korea.

The joint venture between the Chinese authorities and a Thai food-processing company pays the Deda workers £31 per month…the region’s minimum salary…while making annual profits of six million pounds after paying Western-style salaries and bonuses to its executives. The chickens are intensively farmed prior to arrival.

The business motto of the Jilin Deda Company is ‘satisfying clients, profiting the company, contributing to society.’ Its website goes on to state: ‘We sincerely wish to create a beautiful future for all of us.’ Chairman Mao must be turning in his grave. A life devoted to mind-numbing work for a few pence an hour…dressed in uniform pink overalls, blue aprons and matching masks and boots…was not the Great Leap Forward he had in mind for China.

Meanwhile in the UK pre-emptive strikes are now being made on the bank accounts of anyone foolish enough to be christened Ahmed. Mr Salama is a businessman authorised by the Financial Services Authority. His account was upgraded by his friendly neighbourhood bank HSBC two months ago. But a few weeks later the same bank account was frozen. The following day a letter arrived informing him that HSBC wished to end their eleven year relationship.

Ahmed Salama is a normal Londoner who plays snooker and football and cares for his wife and kids. He pays £20 each month to a British-based charity sponsoring children in Afghanistan. But that…and being Ahmed…is clearly enough to send HSBC on red alert.

To quote Mr Salama, ‘The whole situation has put my whole life in a spin emotionally and financially. My only conclusion is that with the majority of people being arrested over alleged terrorism offences having the name Ahmed they think I am one of them or I am laundering money.’ A spokesperson for HSBC remarked that cases of mistaken identity do sometimes occur. So that’s all right then.

On 23rd August 2006 The Times published this apology: ‘We published in the first edition of yesterday’s paper a photograph of a man with a beard identifying the man as Assad Ali Sarwar one of the suspects who had been charged in connection with the recent alleged terrorist plot to blow up passenger aircraft. This was a error. The man in the photograph is not Assad Ali Sarwar and has not been arrested or charged on suspicion of terrorism offences. We apologise to the man in the photograph for the distress and embarrassment caused. So that’s all right then.’

A Parisian friend tells me that the biggest player in the coming French presidential election is not Ségolène Royal or Nicholas Sarkozy but Tony Blair. Royal and Sarkozy…the self-declared modernising candidates on the left and right …are busy casting themselves in Blair’s image.

They both believe that Blair’s brand of centre-leftism has changed the rules in politics by detaching ends from means and values from policies thereby liberating the left from its old obsessions and showing the right that it ignores the public domain at its peril. Economic Efficiency and Social Justice remain the most powerful message in contemporary parliamentary politicking. So that’s all right then.