...reading about the left-on-left battle at Master Poulet, a French chicken chain that just opened its first UK branch, I found myself mulling a question that felt more than a little personal: am I chicken shop left? OK, OK, this might just be a me problem. I’ve always had an interest in chicken shops. Maybe it’s personal: chicken shops, offering cheap halal takes on mainstream fare, have long been a pursuit of south Asian immigrants who hoped, like my own family, for a better life in this brave new world (talk about a wing and a prayer). But they are also bound up in Black British youth culture: neighbourhood incubators for music, affordable places to hang, landmarks of “the ends”. Chicken shops tell the story of a mixed, working-class Britain, with all its whimsy.
’Working class’? Are you sure? Mostly favoured by imported immigrant youth for whom a days work is not something to be looked for…
Back in April, Karim Bouamrane, the Socialist party (PS) mayor of Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, near Paris, tried to block a Master Poulet branch that had opened outside the town hall. Literally, with concrete blocks at the doors. A court ordered them removed, so he swapped them for giant colourful plant pots. The shop responded with quippy signs (“we are open … no offence to Karim”, read one), delighting French social media with this meta game of chicken. Bouamrane insisted it was all about quality of life, as late deliveries and cooking smells disturbed residents. Not everyone was convinced.
It's not so surprising in France, unlike the English, they are proud of their food culture and not about to see it swamped by foreign cultures.
Saint-Ouen has transformed in recent years, not least due to regeneration pegged to the Paris Olympics. Critics accuse the mayor of overseeing a gentrification drive that has seen property prices surge, arguing that’s his real issue: he wants to chase out cheap food (and the sorts of people who eat it).
And that is, after all, the very purpose of gentrification whether one seeks it in France or England. Remove the troublesome population and the surroundings become much more pleasant as a result.
Which may explain why politicians from the further-left La France Insoumise (LFI), have waded in, questioning whether Islamophobia and classism are at play, and accusing the mayor of abusing his power. One MP visited the shop in solidarity. His name? Éric Coquerel. I’ll just leave that there.
To be clear, I am far from an expert on French politics.This is the 'Guardian', you don't need to be. They don't require anyone to know what they are talking about....
So am I part of the chicken shop left? I don’t know, maybe. But perhaps that’s the wrong question. After the almighty flap over Master Poulet, I’m left feeling that politics should be less “ruling the roost” and more “birds of a feather”. Especially with a far-right fox prowling outside the henhouse.
Oh, the mythic 'far right' again.
