Myleene, Twitter, racists and terrorists: a round-up of links

Last week, Terrance Gavan - bomb-maker, gun-collector, immigrant-hater, BNP-member - was jailed for eleven years for 'collecting information useful for terrorism and possessing explosives and firearms'.

Both Anton and Uponnothing have done excellent jobs in examing the media coverage of his sentencing.

Anton looks at the difference in the coverage of Muslim terrorists and those from the far-right, whereas Uponnothing shows how uninterested the Mail seems to be when terrorists are white. They even put a non-story about a Muslim getting married higher up their homepage than the Gavan coverage.

Gavan didn't make the front page of any of the national newspapers. Would a Muslim convicted of hoarding 54 explosive devices and 12 firearms been similarly ignored?

Another post by Uponnothing that is well worth reading is about the comments left on the Mail article about the thug who poured bleach over a woman in a cinema after she had asked him to be quiet.

When the mugshot of 16-year-old Jordan Horsley was released, the fact that his skin wasn't white brought out the unrepentant racists:


All these comments had been moderated in advance - and thus deemed suitable by people at the Mail - and remain up ten days on, with even higher green arrow scores.

On a lighter note, last week's very suspicious story about Myleene Klass being warned by police for wielding a knife at intruders looked increasingly dubious. Marina Hyde in the Guardian had - unlike just about every other journalist who wrote about it, including ones at the Guardian and Observer - 'bothered to establish the chain of events' and discovered:

the initial call to police was not placed by Myleene but by a man believed to be her agent or publicist, to whom she was naturally on the phone at the time.

And:

As for the story's appearance in the Sun the very next day, Hertfordshire police state: "We believe the media found out about the incident following a phone call from Ms Klass's publicist to Emma Cox from the Sun."

And, not in the least bit suspiciously:

despite having given copious quotes and assistance on the story all week, both publicist and agent declined to discuss this yesterday.

Hyde then reveals that Klass seems to have a bit of form in, shall we say, exaggerating...

Elsewhere, the Sunday Express had two (alleged) journalists write up a feeble BBC-bashing story. The article by David Jarvis and David Stephenson was so poor and so inaccurate that it was deleted from the Express website before end of play Monday.

They tried to prove that BBC employees were wasting their time, and your money, by being on Twitter. Yes, bashing the BBC and new-fangled-technology in one.

The problem was they are inept and their research was even worse. They didn't understand how Twitter works and misunderstood the difference between 'followers' and 'following'. They claimed, for example, Victoria Derbyshire had two followers when she actually has over 3,600.

It was unbelievably pathetic. More so, because it appears Stephenson, the paper's TV critic, is actually on Twitter.

Full story at No Rock and Roll Fun.

And finally, hat-tip to badjournalism, Paul E Smith and Bitter Wallet for this tastefully placed advert in the Metro.

More fact-free mud-slinging from Littlejohn

The final section of Richard Littlejohn's latest column reads:

The equalities commission is within its rights to prosecute the BNP for dragging its feet over lifting the ban on non-white members.

But these Toytown Nazis need to be beaten at the ballot box, not in court. Sending Nick Griffin to prison on a technicality will only feed their sense of victim-hood and martyrdom.

Especially when other overtly racist organisations - the Black Police Association, for instance - are free to carry on with impunity.

It's funny, isn't it, that whenever Littlejohn wants to pick on a Police Association he always goes for the Muslim, Black and Trans ones and never the Christian one.

But Littlejohn has just called the Black Police Association 'overtly racist' and compared them to the BNP.

His 'overtly racist' claim seems to be based solely on the fact that the organisation has 'black' in its name.

Because if he'd bothered doing even the smallest bit of research and gone to the homepage of the National Black Police Association website, he would see clearly that:

The NBPA is open to all in policing on application and there is no bar to membership based on colour.

And from the homepage of one of the regional BPA's, Merseyside:

membership is open to all police officers and police staff and organisations and individuals of any rank or grade, irrespective of ethnic origin... we have a number of white full members, one of whom is currently an MBPA [Merseyside Black Police Association] Executive Committee member.

As the NBPA is a registered charity, Littlejohn should write to the Charity Commission with all his evidence about how and why they are 'overtly racist' and let them investigate.

But he won't. Why find out facts when you can get paid huge amounts for lying and myth-making?

Mail readers think death of illegal immigrant is 'good news'

Five Chinese Crackers has highlighted just how horrendous some Mail readers are, following the comments left on the story Migrant found dead in the back of a lorry as it prepares to enter Channel Tunnel.

The thirteen comments so far all revel in the death of this person, and they are all rated positive from +47 to +120. Here's some the 'best':

one down, millions to go
- crackers, yorkshire, 31/10/2009 2:42

Good news. One less to worry about!
- keith jones, porthcawl, south wales, 30/10/2009 22:13

Shame but I would be a hypocrit if I said I was sorry!
- Nanny B, West Sussex, 30/10/2009 17:42

Has the Mail's constant attacks on immigrants (illegal or otherwise) now meant that they have become so de-humanised that the death of one of them is a cause for celebration and described as 'good news'? Are there really hundreds of Mail readers happy to call for the deaths of 'millions' of people?

And - as 5CC asks - are the advertisers happy that their wares are associated with this story and these comments?

Leo McKinstry and the BNP

At the start of August, Leo McKinstry wrote in the Express about how all Britain's problems are caused by immigration.

Yesterday Leo McKinstry wrote in the Express about how all Britain's problems are caused by immigration.

Then it was: Labour's lies have brought the UK to ruin - Labour's rhetoric on immigration is a colossal exercise in deceit.

Yesterday it was: Labour's biggest lie of all is about mass immigration.

This cost-cutting at the Express really is getting out of hand...

Then, without any shred of irony, he begins his latest with this:

Josef Goebbels, the sinister chief of Nazi propaganda, wrote: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it"...

Those words apply exactly to the Government’s rhetoric on immigration.

Yes, repeating lies so people begin to believe it. Not that the Express or McKinstry would ever repeatedly use dishonest rhetoric about immigration. Or Muslims. Or political correctness. Or Diana being 'murdered'.

And so begins yet another anti-immigration rant:

As our country sinks deeper into the mire of recession, despair and social dislocation, the full extent of [government] lies on immigration has been exposed.

And:

The dramatic rise in immigration has coincided with the deepest recession since the Thirties.

As the numbers continue to flood in, unemployment rises and living standards fall.

That's funny - the dramatic rise in the use of, say, Twitter has coincided with the deepest recession since the Thirties. Shall we blame that too? Does it have nothing to do with the bank system then? Or the

grotesque mismanagement of public finances

which McKinstry blamed for the economic crisis back in April.

He continues:

the mass arrival of foreigners has imposed an intolerable strain on public services, especially the NHS, social security, housing and education, as well as creating a huge burden for the taxpayer, costing more than £30billion a year.

It's not totally clear what that £30billion refers to, it's not clear he knows either, but after suggesting immigrants are costing the taxpayer that much (by which he means white British people, as 'foreigners' don't appear to be taxpayers), he doesn't have to. The damage is done.

There are other outright lies. He talks about:

rising crime and ethnic tension

as if the latter is the fault of immigrants, rather than, say, racist newspapers which carry BNP slogans on their front page.

He should take a look at last night's Panorama too.

And 'rising crime'? The last British Crime Survey said the crime rate was stable and recorded crime was down 5%.

With no apparent logic at all he also states:

no fewer than 733,000 National Insurance numbers were handed out to newly arrived foreigners, making a mockery of Government claims that net migration is on the decline.

It's hard to see how those two things are related, or how one disproves the other. But he's wrong. As his own paper stated when the last immigration figures were released:

Overall, 118,000 more people arrived in Britain than left, the lowest net immigration figure since the EU expanded in 2004.

So, er, net migration is on the decline then.

McKinstry also uses the term

bogus refugees

eventhough it is meaningless. What is a 'bogus refugee'?

Towards the end he says:

the Labour lie machine goes on remorselessly, bullying us into “celebrating” our nation’s own demise.

It's hard to know exactly how McKinstry thinks the nation is in 'demise' or indeed how this is being 'celebrated'. Apart from frothing, fact-lite soundbites, what evidence does he have or examples does he give? None. It appears as if any change to the population or the work-force is, to him, ruining the country.

Therefore, here's a quote from the BNP on immigration:

The current open-door policy and unrestricted, uncontrolled immigration is leading to higher crime rates, demand for more housing (driving prices out of the reach of young people), severe extra strain on the environment, traffic congestion, longer hospital waiting lists, lower educational standards, higher income taxes, lower wages, higher unemployment, loss of British identity, a breakdown in community spirit, more restrictive policing, higher council taxes, a shortage of council homes, higher levels of stress and unhappiness and a more atomised society.

And here's a paragraph assembled from quotes in McKinstry's column:

Immigrants 'continue to flood in' as the 'Government has lost all grip on our borders'. This is leading to 'rising crime' and has 'imposed an intolerable strain on public services, especially the NHS, social security, housing and education'. 'Unemployment rises and living standards fall' and there is a 'huge burden for the taxpayer'. We see a 'transformation in our society' with 'ethnic tension' and 'recession, despair and social dislocation'. 'Britain has become a place of apprehension, fear and suspicion.'

The differences are minimal. And the conclusion both want you to reach is this: immigrants are to blame for everything that is wrong with Britain.

In a week when the BNP will probably get more publicity than at any time before, McKinstry doesn't use his column to attack the nasty, racist party, preferring instead to use the platform he has to peddle a load of anti-immigration myths that only help that party get its message out.

It's the manure that helps the BNP grow.

The Mail's running commentary on Strictly

The news that Strictly Come Dancing hoofer and Brucie-wannabe Anton du Beke described his partner Laila Rouass as a 'Paki' in a woefully misjudged 'joke' about her spray tan, leaves the Mail and its readers in a predicament.

They inevitably want to criticise the BBC and anyone who works for it.

But at the same time, they believe that everyone should be free to use words as offensive as 'Paki', and to stop their usage is political correctness gone mad.

What to say? Well, this apparently:


Incredible. For the record, Rouass has an Indian mother and Moroccan father.

But they all look the same, don't they?

In other Strictly news, the Mail claims that one of the dancing couples, Ali Bastian and Brian Fortuna, are in a relationship. Two single people start dating - hold the front pages! And follow them with long-lens cameras when they go for a walk.

Of course, the Mail does seem peculiarly obsessed with stalking Strictly contestants.

But what is interesting about the Ali and Brian story (yes, there is one thing) is the presentation. The headline is:

Ali does a Kristina: Yet another Strictly couple are getting closer in training...

The Kristina in question is Ms Rihanoff, who has apparently struck up a relationship with her dance partner, boxer Joe Calzaghe. If you search for their names on the Mail site, you get 30 results, charting exactly whether or not they are in fact a couple.

But notice how it is the women who are the subject. Why would the headline not be 'Brian does a Joe'? Or 'Ali does a Joe' if you are sticking to the celeb angle?

Not for the Mail - the women are always to blame.

Old letter writing racist influenced by the Mail

It has been noted here before that Mail stories turn up on the BNP website with few changes and last week the Star was recruiting for the English Defence League. The link between the tabloids and the rise of far-right groups seems undeniable.

Now the Guardian is reporting this:

Police are hunting an elderly letter writer responsible for sending more than 50 racially abusive letters to people across the country, including the prime minister.

The letters, some sexually explicit in content, have been sent to schools, hospitals, mosques, universities, doctors' surgeries and private individuals, leaving some recipients "extremely distressed".

According to Hampshire police, which is heading the investigation, the letters are all pro-English in content and racially inflammatory, with many appearing to have been sent in response to Daily Mail articles. All the letters are offensive and racist against a wide variety of nationalities and cultures...Clippings from the Daily Mail have been included in many envelopes.

Some of the letters are just about readable on the Times website.

BNP repeats Mail's racist story on immigrant 'killers'

Predictably, the BNP have posted their version of the Daily Mail's disgusting One out of every five killers is an immigrant story. 'Immigration is literally killing us' is once again a complete cut-and-paste job and leaves out comments such as:

The figures showed foreigners were also more likely to be victims of murder or manslaughter.

This is buried deep in the Mail story. Why is that not a major story? Could it because the Mail might then have to deal with what causes people to hate and murder immigrants?

Incidentally, the figures the Mail uses - already proved to be bollocks by 5CC - are based on people:

accused or convicted of murder or manslaughter

The BNP makes no such distinction on this point, and although the Mail includes that caveat, it ignores it. Surely including people who were only 'accused of' a crime along with people actually 'convicted' makes the figures worthless.

Or even more worthless.

Amanda Platell 'forgets' she's an immigrant

It has always been a bit of a source of wonder how Amanda Platell can be considered an expert on anything given her claim to fame is her incredibly unsuccessful work as press secretary for William Hague.

Her latest outburst is related to this week's population figures. As if trying to be an offensive and inaccurate in as little time as possible, her third sentence reads:

Sadly, though, it is not the indigenous middle-class, hard-working, tax-paying population that's exploding.

She might as well have said 'we're being over-run by chavs and foreigners on benefits' and be done with it.

She blames the benefit system, suggesting:

it's not so much a baby boom we're experiencing as a benefits boom. Middle Britain, stand ready to empty your wallets.

This is ludicrous. And really unpleasant. Apparently immigrants, and immigrant families, aren't ever taxpayers in Amanda's bizarre, imagined Britain.

She asks:

how many immigrant mums have contributed anything to this country before landing us with another child to educate in our already struggling schools?

Obviously she doesn't provide an answer, because she doesn't know, but asking the question makes it sound like this must be a problem. She goes on, in typical BNP-style rhetoric to ask:

At a time when the very core of Britishness is threatened, shouldn't we be concerned about this?

What exactly is the 'very core of Britishness'? What is it being threatened by? Does anyone know what she is on about?

She also claims:

We are now the second most densely populated country in the world

despite the fact 'we' are 52nd. So that is just a blatant lie.

She goes on to display a lack of self-awareness that takes the breath away:

We're told mass immigration is crucial to keep Britain booming, that we need foreign workers.

In fact, as other figures showed this week, more than five million Brits have never worked under Labour, which suggests that far from importing workers, we need to get our own population into jobs.

At which point you just want to scream. Because, for those who don't know, Amanda Platell was born in Australia.

That would make her an immigrant. An immigrant with a job on a British newspaper. She's complaining about herself.

Mail readers who want to be outwardly racist

Apparently, the Mail messageboard people, that breed who think France is in the UK, can't see anything wrong with the word 'Paki':

Paki is no worse than Brit.
- Joe O'Neill, Pretoria,South Africa, 26/8/2009 12:52

Where I live I am called a "Brit", short for British. Am I screaming "Racism?" No I am not. Stop making trouble where there is none.
- james, dubai, uae, 26/8/2009 12:51

Pakis, Brits, Scots, what's the difference?
- Chris, Yorkshire, 26/8/2009 12:56

All positively rated of course.

Really, really, disturbing.

They'll be wanting to call black people 'golliwogs' next. Oh, wait...

Recommended reads

Septicisle has posted on how The Sun has 'forgotten' to mention (the Murdoch owned) Myspace in a negative story about the site.

While reporting on the same story, the Mail decides Facebook is partly blame for promoting gangster culture. Well it's to blame for everything else, so why not?

Meanwhile the BBC has done an interesting (and somehow, sadly unsurprising) undercover investigation which appears to show housing agents are discriminating against ethnic minorities. The same day, Sky News did an undercover investigation about dog breeding.

Mail still doing the BNP's work for it

About to post about the Mail's striking Four in ten under-20s in London aren't white but Jonathan at No Sleep Til Brooklands has beaten me to it.

As he points out the figure does appear to be genuine (although 'experimental' and three years old) but the real question is - what is the point to it, other than some casual race-baiting? It makes up two short paragraphs of a 29-page report and is turned into a full blown scandal to rile the Mail pilgrims.

And once again, the story has been picked up and posted on the BNP site (just as this post was being written). It contains a few juicy extras such as 'bloodless genocide' and:

within the next generation and a half, white British people will effectively be a total minority in Britain’s capital city, and shortly after that be extinct from the streets of London.

But the question is - how much is the Mail influencing BNP press releases? For example, the Mail says:

At present, just over a third of Londoners of all ages are reckoned to be non-white - but the new figures indicate that this share will grow substantially in the future.

BNP:

Currently it is estimated that a third of all of London’s population is non-white, but this figure is to change dramatically as the predominantly youthful population matures.

Mail:

They also point to the way recent waves of immigration have made a bigger impact on London than other parts of the country.

BNP:

The figures also show that recent waves of immigration have made a bigger impact on London than other parts of the country.

Mail:

The analysis from the Office for National Statistics said that in the West Midlands, the second most multi-racial area of the country after London, just 19 per cent of children and teenagers are non-white.

BNP:

The analysis from the Office for National Statistics said that in the West Midlands, the second most multiracial area of the country after London, just 19 percent of children and teenagers are non-white.

Mail:

Sir Andrew Green of the Migrationwatch think-tank said: 'This illustrates the massive change that is taking place to our society at a rapid pace and without the indigenous population ever being consulted'.

BNP:

Asked for comment, Sir Andrew Green of the Migrationwatch think tank told a newspaper that this “illustrates the massive change that is taking place to our society at a rapid pace and without the indigenous population ever being consulted".

It's not just that these sentences are (almost) identical, but they follow each other in exactly the same order in both. This may show a complete lack of imagination by BNP press release writers, but the fact they feel comfortable repeating whole sections of a Mail article says more about the latter than the former.

Mail attacks attempts to improve relations with Gypsies on day terrorised Roma flee country

Two new developments in the case of the Romanians in Belfast.

Overnight, City Church, which gave refuge to the families after they were forced out of their homes, had its door and main windows smashed. The pastor says linking the two events would be 'guesswork' but it would be good guesswork.

Then came news that of the 114 people who were targeted, 100 were going to return to Romania. So not only have they been forced from their homes, they have been forced out of the country.

A deeply depressing state of affairs. One so serious that the Daily Mail can't even be arsed to assign a named journalist to the story, so its byline is 'Daily Mail Reporter', who produces 532 words on it. The Sun doesn't appear to have covered the story at all, while the Express deems it worthy of 308 words.

And it gets even more depressing, because the Mail then dedicates 620 angry words to the story Fury as police force holds party for local gipsies to 'improve relations' with travellers . The idea that the police - or indeed, anyone - might be trying to improve relations between locals and the Gypsy and Traveller community on the day 100 Roma have been forced to flee the country after racist attacks against them enrages the Mail. It's a twisted logic all the Mail's own.

Of course, the 'fury' it mentions in the headline is, as always, not really fury at all. It's the Taxpayers Alliance (who Anton has been chasing) doing their rent-a-quote-fury schtick. Are they really arguing: 'How dare the police spend two thousand pounds trying to improve community relations'?

Coming so soon after stoking anti-Gypsy feeling with its wildly exaggerated 'story' about NHS provision and blaming the Belfast Roma for their plight because they're all criminals, the bile and hate in the Mail's agenda is sickening. As one of the comments left on the story says: 'So not only do these people get health service priority, they're using our money to give them a party. Come on for God's sake, something has to be done'. And that seems to be exactly what the Belfast hate mob thought and it's what the Mail thinks. If they knew how, they should be ashamed.

Littlejohn and the BNP

Richard Littlejohn has read his copy of yesterday's Mail and churned out a so-expected-it's-untrue diatribe against the NHS document on health provision for Gypsies and Travellers. It reads much like the the Mail article, with a few 'you couldn't make it up' and 'Guardianista' phrases chucked in.

But the BNP have read their copy of the Mail too, and have also issued a press release. The differences in the three articles are minimal.

Littlejohn: Fast-tracking the Tarmacing community on the NHS
Mail: Want to see a GP? Gipsies come first as NHS tells doctors that travellers must be seen at once
BNP: Romany Gypsies in Britain Given Better NHS Service than British People

As the Mail article was discussed here previously, here's some of the points Littlejohn and the BNP make.

Littlejohn:

the NHS has decided to give priority to gipsies in hospitals and GP surgeries.

BNP:

At least half of all Gypsies and Travellers in Britain are Romany in origin and are officially placed above indigenous British people in a range of National Health Services.

Littlejohn:

gipsies will be allocated a full 20 minutes with a doctor and allowed to bring their extended family into the waiting room. The average length of a normal appointment, always assuming you can get one, is between five and ten minutes.

BNP:

Gypsies must be given 20 minute consultations (in comparison to native British peoples’ five or ten minutes) and must be allowed to bring relatives into the consulting rooms;

Littlejohn:

A Department of Health statement said it was 'fast-tracking' what it calls 'members of the mobile community' because they have difficulty accessing services.

BNP:

Gypsies must be “fast tracked” when being provided with NHS services.

Littlejohn (in relating the story of an correspondent who apparently had to wait for an appointment):

a gipsy...would have been ushered to the top of the list.

BNP:

[Gypsies] must be seen before any other patients, even if the indigenous patients have been there earlier or have prior appointments;

Littlejohn:

Now, I can understand that this policy may have arisen from the most noble of intentions. But this has nothing to do with the milk of human kindness and owes everything to the venomous bile of the 'diversity' industry, which takes sadistic pleasure in persecuting the taxpaying majority.

BNP:

The NHS document tries to justify this blatant anti-British policy by claiming that Gypsies suffer from greater health problems than indigenous British people.

Spot the difference? It's not the first time in the past week a Mail columnist and the BNP seem to be in agreement. And given events in Belfast it's really hard to see what the Mail hopes to achieve by stoking anti-Gypsy sentiment by misrepresenting these guidelines in the way it has.

Incidentally, the only mention Littlejohn gives to the racist attacks on the Romaian families in Belfast is as an aside in a piece attacking Martin McGuinness.

Mail helps fuel more anti-Roma attacks

The Guardian is reporting that last night there were further attacks on a Romanian family in Belfast, while the twenty families forced to move yesterday are now in a secret location with an armed guard.

Given the Guardian reports that 'the majority [are] from the Roma community', isn't it just the perfect time to go to the Daily Mail website and see this as the main headline:

Want to see a GP? Gipsies come first as NHS tells doctors that travellers must be seen at once

Googling the story brings up the Daily Mail version first, the Stormfront re-print second. The story is based on a Primary Care Service Framework document on the health of Gypsies and Travellers, that quite rightly points out that:

Gypsies and Travellers have significantly poorer health status and significantly more self-reported symptoms of ill-health than other UK-resident...There is now little doubt that health inequality between the observed Gypsy Traveller population in England and their non-Gypsy counterparts is striking, even when compared with other socially deprived or excluded groups and with other ethnic minorities.

So it only seems right the NHS should react. And given the lifestyle of Gypsies and Travellers, and the likelihood of moving to a new area, it suggests it is important, given their relative poor health, that they are 'wherever possible fast-tracked into primary care services'.

But the Mail insidiously twists this into them being given 'priority' and that they must be 'seen at once'. The report says no such thing. It suggests that:

practices should adopt a policy of not turning away any Gypsy/Traveller who attends without an agreed appointment

but not turning someone away is rather different to claiming they must be seen at once.

And nowhere in the article does the Mail make reference to the 'significantly poorer health status' of Gypsies and Travellers. They do include some comments from the Taxpayers Alliance (their second favourite rent-a-quote gang after Migrationwatch), who states:

The only priority should be how ill someone is, not their politically-correct concerns.

Which is exactly what the guidelines are trying to do - ensure people in poor health get the treatment they need.

The whole article reeks of 'look at these people who aren't like you getting preferential treatment' - if it's not Gypsies, it's immigrants or Muslims. And it's the type of article that (sorry to repeat, again) fuels the agenda of the BNP.

Sun readers, the BNP and Belfast

I posted earlier about how the readers of the Mail reacted to the news that over 100 Romanians had been hounded out of their homes by racists. But the comments on the Sun website are even worse. Despicable, knuckle-dragging, slack-jawed filth that puts the Mail's efforts to shame (click for larger images)
This all makes depressing reading. Stand out comments include:

SOMETIMES IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO GET THINGS DONE!

...which was posted by 'upthearse' - appropriately, as that's where his comment seems to come from. And then there's the twisted logic of 'mickey1':

lETS HAVE A COLLECTION AND SEND THEM HOME,I AM FED UP WITH THESE PEOPLE BEGGING AND HARRASING PEOPLE,SEND THEM HOME.

...who is attacking the victims for 'harrasing [sic] people'. Go figure.

'Comfortablynumb' says this is 'very understandable' and prays for more of the same: 'I just know it isn't going to be the last we hear of it will it be here next...with a bit of luck?'

'elmlea22' decides to go for the insightful: 'GREAT... Bet they will come to the UK now' - proving s/he's such a patriot, they don't even know what the UK is.

The BNP has put out a press release entitled 'BNP Leader Condemns Belfast Anti-Gypsy Violence and Immigration Policy Which Allows It to Happen'. And yes, it does contain a vague condemnation of the attacks:

No one wants to see any person attacked and for that reason all right-minded people will condemn the attacks over the past few days.

Which echoes the 'I'm not racist but'-type comments from the Sun morons. But it also contains a series of vile anti-Gypsy sentiments and innuendos about crime perpetrated by Gypsies. It says:

We also have to bear in mind that the Gypsy community is notorious for its extremely high rate of criminality and anti-social behaviour...I am quite sure that the people of Belfast are reacting to what they see as provocation from the Gypsy invasion of their city, and while I cannot support their reaction, I think that it was fairly predictable, given what everyone knows about Eastern Europe’s Gypsy population.

So the BNP and the people who comment at the Mail and Sun agree - it's all the fault of the Romanians.

Racist attacks less important to Mail than fake tits

The news that around 100 Romanians have been forced to flee their homes in Belfast because of a string of racist attacks is a shocking and important development. At time of writing it is lead story on the BBC website, and takes a high profile on the Sky News, Guardian, Telegraph and Times websites (various below Iran and breaking unemployment figures).

The Sun's homepage doesn't mention it anywhere on its homepage (but Big Brother is everywhere). The Express has it on its UK news page, but not the homepage.

The Mail does have it fairly high up, but decides its of less importance than more whinging about bin collections, job applications at McDonalds, why Brits like living in New Zealand (one of their twisted 'immigration is good when it's British people' stories), Katie Price's big tits and Victoria Beckham's reduced tits.

And when you get to the comments section on the Mail's story, it's beyond parody. This comment:

I notice a lot of blaming the victim going on here. Racism is disgusting and always wrong. Anyone who voted BNP recently take a look - this is the future you voted for.
- JamesP., edinburgh, 17/6/2009 9:41

is currently at -121. And at -102, this:

it is very easy to whip up hysteria about immigration but its equally hard to control the nasty forces such hysteria unleashes. We all have a responsibility here.....
- Mike, Bristol, 17/6/2009 9:26

Whereas commentators who blame the government, rather than the mindless racist thugs, get big positive scores. But Mike in Bristol's comment about immigration hysteria unleashing nasty forces - you can't expect Mail readers to appreciate that.

Gaunt defends white blonde immigrant; makes racist claims about others

Jon Gaunt's latest diatribe is another against 'every Tom, Dick and Abdul' (how many more times does he have to use this feeble Littlejohn-like 'joke'?).

He's on his high horse. A woman has arrived in Britain without the proper papers, so she was detained for 11 hours and then put on a plane home. Gaunty was delighted.

Except he wasn't. Take a look at the woman in question and see if you can guess why...

Yes, she's young, blonde, female and white.

But does she even need a visa? According to the UK in Australia (FCO) site:

Most Australian citizens visiting the United Kingdom for a holiday or short business trip do not need a visa provided they meet the requirements of the Immigration Rules.

Since he claims she was only here for a friends wedding, it appears there is a bit more to this story than Gaunty suggests. Imagine that. But even if not, it's still striking double standards based solely on skin colour. And he's not done yet.

He goes on to claim illegal immigrants - all those Abdul's - only come to this country for 'a lifetime of hot and cold running benefits' without apparently knowing illegal immigrants would of course get no such thing. Because they're illegal immigrants.

He goes on: 'those in control of immigration (I use the term very loosely) would rather let in those who want to leech off us at best and preach hatred at worst'. So there it is - the two options which, in Gaunty's world, encapsulate the motives of all immigrants. To claim the best thing immigrants do is 'leech of us' is insidious racism and, as it's an opinion piece aimed at a group, there's not the slightest thing the Press Complaints Commission could do about it.

Star pulls on its jackboots

The Daily Star continues to give a propaganda boost to certain patriotic English (ahem) groups in Luton. They are reporting that an anti-extremist demo has been given the go-ahead 'in protest at Muslim hatemongers trying to split Britain.'

This is in response to the dozen infamous publicity-hungry loudmouths who picketed the soldier's homecoming parade in the town. How this very small group are going to 'split Britain' isn't very clear. But the sympathetic language for the 'anti-extremists' is very telling. The story goes on to say:

The rally is organised by March For England, which previously led similar campaigns on Baby P and Gurkhas’ rights.

Which of course makes them seem very kindly. But a look at their website or Myspace page shows a preponderance of imagery that seem to point in one direction - lions, lots of red and white - and protestations that they aren't racist. Why do they feel the need to do that?

Well, because they link to the websites of their 'friends' Lionheart and Tabloid UK, a site which seems to re-print every anti-immigrant story from the tabloids without critical comment. One of their friends on Myspace is a full of praise for the BNP. Most of their friends on Myspace and Facebook appear to be white.

They say (their caps):

WE ARE NOT A RACIST GROUP NOR DO WE CONDONE ANY RACISM, NOR ARE WE AFFILIATED WITH ANY RACIST GROUP.

But they follow that by saying immigration has 'ruined..our country' and is 'threatening our country’s identity'.

Back to the Star and the story continues:

Rally inspiration Wayne King’s Ban The Terrorists group has a 1,500-strong petition which it plans to present to Luton’s mayor Lakhbir Singh.

Banning terrorists is not really a hugely controversial line to take (only 1,500 signatures for that?), but the use of the word 'inspiration' again makes it clear where the Star's sympathies lie.

Is it cuz he is black?

Like the Express, the Star also has the same, intrusive Tesco ad on the front page. Richard Desmond must be coining it in.

But the story (and for once, they appear to have accurately reported what has been said elsewhere) is framed in a strange way. After all, would the headline have ever been written as 'White Prem ace held in 'race abuse' attack' if the attacker was white? The answer, of course, is no.

So why is do they feel it relevant to highlight that the attacker was 'black' here?

They all look the same

What troubles? Rihanna is all smiles again as she soaks up the sun with Chris Brown lookalike headlines a Daily Mail story by Dominique Hines. One of their 'stories' that's just some pap shots of a sleb wearing not much.

But even a cursory glance at the pic in question shows that the mystery man who 'could pass for [Chris Brown's] double' doesn't actually look much like him at all.

Indeed, three of eight comments so far have said the same thing.

But you know how it is at the Mail. Those non-whites, they all look the same, don't they?