The Doorstep Challenge

‘“BRITS: Throw out this racist rabble-rouser,” orders the Express on its front page.

‘Where is that Cliff Richard, the one they call Peter Pan?’

And we could not agree more. But hold on there a moment. You can release the chains from around Ron Atkinson’s sun-kissed shoulders and there’s no need to picket the Express itself and demand the immediate deportation of its owner Richard Desmond.

This story is not about either of those non-racists. It’s about one Jean-Marie Le Pen, the French politico who has been socialising with our own British National Party in Manchester.

Le Pen was in town to support the BNP in its bid to win some votes at the upcoming European elections.

The irony of the BNP relying on of all people a Frenchman to drum home its message of division and white British supremacy is probably lost of those who wrap themselves in the flag.

But if those Brits who don’t vote BNP want to kick a racist out, they should put their other boot up the rear end of Abu Hamza, who has, apparently, urged his supporters to become suicide bombers.

This is a story worthy of the Mail’s front-page. And, indeed, there it is, the words hanging besides the by-now-familiar shot of Hamza, open-mouthed and brandishing his hook like an out-of-season pantomime villain.

To date, Hamza has done little other than scream invective and remind the able-bodied that the disabled can hate just as much as the next maniac.

But he wants to take things on, and the Mail has heard what it claims to be extracts from secret tapes sent to his followers.

“You do not have to travel thousands of miles to be a martyr,” says Hamza. “You can become one on your own doorstep.”

And if you blow up your front door, your house and your wheelie bin in the process, so many more virgins in paradise for you…’

Posted: 26th, April 2004 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink