The Rainbow Vegetarian Café in Cambridge, England, has announced that it will not accept the new £5 polymer notes, introduced by the Bank of England in September. Last week the British vegan community discovered that the notes contain trace amounts of beef tallow, which is animal fat, and are therefore unacceptable by their cruelty-free standards. A heated online controversy has resulted, including a petition asking the Bank to remove tallow from the polymer.
The Rainbow Café's owner, Sharon Meijland, told The Telegraph that her stance was announced last Wednesday, at the end of a BBC radio interview on the unrelated topic of Christmas food.
"We sponsor the Vegan Fair and announced on Wednesday we would not be accepting the £5 notes because they are dubious ethically. We have been providing food for vegans for 30 years and have tried to be as ethical as we possibly can...This is not just a restaurant, it's a restaurant where tiny details like this are really important."
Is any of our money cruelty-free?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @06:14PM
Legal tender only applies to the discharge of a debt, so if they require payment up front it is irrelevant.
Even then (paying after consuming food, such that there is a debt), legal tender is actually only a legal defense during a court case, and to exercise it one has to pay the sum in to the court - as legal tender.
So I leave others to work out the practical implications, which I'd suggest are quite obvious.
diasan
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @06:28PM
BTW - This came up on the ukcrypto mailing list a few years ago, have a look at these two messages, and follow the link to the CPR:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/pipermail/ukcrypto/2014-December/002447.html [greenend.org.uk]
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/pipermail/ukcrypto/2014-December/002450.html [greenend.org.uk]
CPR 37.2: http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part37 [justice.gov.uk]
diasan