I hate to say I told you so but....

Sometimes it is best to wait before making a comment, see what transpires before you decide to follow a certain line of thought. I cannot, however, hold back any longer the time has come for me to pass comment on the whole horse meat saga.
There are two real aspects of this: The eating of horse and the fact that many people did not know they were eating anything other than beef.
There is no major problem, morally or environmentally with eating horse instead of beef. It is miles away from the British cultural register but, in essence there is not a health issue. Though passing off some meats as other meats which certain cultures and religions do not eat is despicable. Again, it probably doesn't offer a major physical health problem but to ride roughshod over people's religious conscience is an act of shameful profiteering, devoid of morals or decency.
Not knowing what we are eating is a much larger problem. If we insist on sourcing meat from all over Europe and moving it from country to country before packaging it in some kind of mince based product, then there is so much room for problems to occur that we really should not be surprised.
Meat has become a commodity, traded internationally without any consideration for quality or safety. Somewhere in the tangled chain of supply somebody must have known that this was not beef, but horse. The two meats are similar but not indistinguishable. Horse is much leaner than beef and has a different texture, any butcher with any skills or experience would spot the difference. There is no doubt that there have been, at best, many acts of deliberate ignorance if not criminality.
If you cannot cook, owing to lack of ability or time then, of course, the ready meal is the way to feed yourself and those you love. The answer, however, is not to buy the cheapest option available. Buy your ready meals from people who make in small batches (this means that the meal is made by a person in a kitchen, not by a machine in a factory). If it is not clear where the ingredients have come from, ask and keep asking till you get an answer that satisfies you.
In the broader picture we need to ask who is in control of our food supply and hold them to account at every turn. I shall say it again for all those who are listening - Eat less meat, eat better quality meat, buy meat from a butcher if you can and treat meat as something very precious.

On a more positive note, a couple of weekend's ago the Beautiful Wife was on a course in Tetbury in the Cotswolds and I went with her to enjoy the foody joys of this area. I now have a Hobbs House Sourdough ferment and, as I type my second loaf from this "starter" is in the oven, filling the house with wonderful smells.