A chip shop boss has insisted he’s not racist after putting up a banner boasting that the business now had ‘English owners’. Paul Bradbury insists customers ‘want to know they are going to be served by somebody English’ – even though the shop had previously been run by English people of east Asian descent and of Greek descent. He and his wife Rachel took over the Chippy On The Green, in Hapton Road, Padiham, Lancashire less than a fortnight ago. But the couple have already provoked a furious row with a banner across the front of the shop that reads: ‘Under new management with English owners’. Burnley’s Lib Dem MP Gordon Birtwistle and the mayor of Padiham have both issued demands for it to be removed. But defiant Mr Bradbury has no plans to take it down. He said: ‘I’m not racist. Anyone who thinks I’m a bigot is narrow-minded. ‘People want to know they are going to be served by somebody English. People have said to us that they are glad somebody English is serving them and that the sign made them want to come in. ‘They’ve never had anyone in the shop before. We are advertising that we [...]
↧