Cluck, yeah.

Britain's decline into a land of cheap chicken shops is depressing and disturbing

Fried chicken seems to have taken over our High Streets.

It is everywhere. A bit like those Korean nail parlours and American candy stores, the number of chicken shops is growing rapidly as High Streets die.

In the UK the numbers are up 6 per cent in the past year. So much so, I have started recording some of the names.

Best one so far is a place called Cluck, Yeah near me in Brentford. Kid you not.

There are over 8,000 chicken shops in London as I write. This makes London the European, if not the world capital, of fried chicken shops. Why should this be?

Poverty is one factor. Chicken is relatively cheap, even if a lot of it is very poor quality - it is not Waitrose, that’s for sure.

It tends to be loaded with water and salt. I think also a lot of people in lower-paid jobs cannot be bothered to cook when takeaways are relatively cheap.

Not their fault. If you were up at 4am I can understand that cooking in the evening may not be your highest priority.

I think there is also a generic concern about shops that spring up and very quickly die - suspicion of money laundering.