Fish and Chip Shop Targeted After Owner Mocks Queen’s Death

The hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth leaves Balmoral Castle, Scotland, on Sept. 11, 2022 (Owen Humphreys/PA Media)

The owner of a fish and chip shop in Scotland who celebrated the death of Queen Elizabeth II in an online video that attracted a mob of protesters has had the windows of her business smashed.

Jaki Pickett, who runs Jaki’s Fish and Chip Shop in Muir of Ord, in the Highlands, posted a video of herself on Thursday evening on the shop’s Facebook page with a bottle of champagne, raising a toast to the news of the death of the queen.

Backlash

She also held up a chalkboard with the words “Lizard Liz is dead” while shouting “London Bridge has fallen.” The video has since been deleted.

Operation London Bridge (also known by its code phrase “London Bridge is down”) is the funeral plan for the late monarch.

Following the video, taken just moments after the death of the queen was announced, locals surrounded the takeaway hurling eggs and ketchup at the windows. The incident also caused an online backlash.

Photos published in the Daily Mail taken on Saturday night showed the front of the shop with a shattered window and a hole in the middle.

Police Scotland told The Epoch Times by email that police on two occasions were called to the shop on Thursday and Friday following a report of a large crowd gathered in the area.

“Officers remained at the scene to ensure the safety of all present and the group subsequently dispersed peacefully,” it wrote.

The National Federation of Fish Friers (NFFF) wrote that it had been made aware of social media posts made by one of its members “that are in extremely bad taste and completely against all of the values our organisation and industry hold dear.”

“We have discussed this as a board and have taken the decision to revoke the membership of this business owner and we will be writing to them and asking them to remove all association of the NFFF from her business, social media, and websites,” it added.

NFFF President Andrew Crook confirmed in an email to The Epoch Times that it had removed Pickett from the organisation.

“Yes we did revoke the membership of this business owner,” he said.

“My board saw the video at 8:50 p.m. on Thursday and we had voted to revoke it by 9:10 p.m. as we believe the actions of this owner to be in extremely bad taste. We are all for free speech but not when it could cause offence and upset so therefore we did not want our organisation associated with it,” he added.

The Epoch Times contacted Jaki Pickett for comment.