Why Has The Daily Star Stopped Supporting The English Defence League?
WHAT’S occurring at the Daily Star and its attitude to the English Defence League? Back in February the Star reported that the EDL was to become a political party. This apparent news was announced with photos of white faces carrying English flags. In one corner of the Star’s front page was a Muslim carrying a placard that said British soldiers should rot in hell. Readers were told.
“In the Daily Star phone poll yesterday, 98% of readers said they agreed with the EDL’s policies.”
That’s not too shabby – only Saddam Hussein ever got 100% of the popular vote. Of course, the Star failed to say how many people actually took part in the paper’s phone vote. It might only be a handful? And 98% may well be as good as it gets. As it told us in October 2010:
“…yesterday’s Daily Star poll found 98% of readers fear that Britain is becoming a Muslim state.”
A Muslim state with with its Muslim toilets, we’d wager.
But then the Star went one better:
“We asked in yesterday’s voteline if you would back the EDL and 99% of you said you would.”
The paper’s editorial was hardly scathing of the anti-Islam EDL:
Critics say the English Defence League is a racist, extremist organisation that’s filled with hate. The group’s leader Tommy Robinson strongly denies this. He says members have no problems with race.But he admits he is against ‘barbaric’ Islam and the way it affects Britain. Whatever side of the fence you fall, one thing’s for sure. There is a visibly growing support for the EDL. It is attracting people across Britain to its ranks who feel the same way. This should be a warning to the major political parties. Key voters are so fed up with them that they are looking elsewhere. And there are real underlying issues here with Brits who feel abandoned by their leaders. The EDL are now planning to field election candidates. If the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems don’t heed this and address key issues they could soon become a political force. Then, whether you like them or not, Tommy and his followers will have to be taken very seriously.”
The EDL never clearly said they were set to become a political party. That was the Star’s twist on this:
The party’s boss Tommy Robinson said: “We aren’t ruling it out. I think this country needs a party that’s not afraid to say things some would consider unpopular. My hope is still that the Tories will take a tougher stance. We are a single issue group and at the moment we would rather have a dialogue with the other political parties – but that could change.”
But the Star seems to want to vote EDL. To paraphrase the Daily Mail, the Star seemed to be yelling: Hurrah! for the Football Shirts!
Hope Not Hate noticed the Star:
We believe that the Daily Star regularly oversteps the boundaries of responsibility in reporting issues relating to Muslims and in doing so increases the mistrust and fear of people towards them. This helps to create a dangerous backlash among non-Muslims which in turn feeds groups such as the EDL and the British National Party. We then have the situation, as described by Det Supt John Larkin, where anti-Muslim activities increases support for Islamic extremist groups.
But then something changed. Yesterday the Star wrote:
ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE COULD CARRY OUT BREIVIK-STYLE MASSACRES IF THEY ARE NOT MONITORED
That’s Anders Breivik the mass murderer who likes the EDL. John Ward writes:
THE English Defence League will carry out a Norway-style massacre in Britain unless the Government cracks down on the racist organisation, according to an expert. The far-right group should be monitored in the way terrorists are to prevent a mass killing on the scale of the atrocity carried out by Anders Breivik last month
This = is some change from a group the Star was talking about as being representative of 98% of its readers. We hear from “expert” Matthew Collins, “once a top dog in the BNP and National Front but is now an anti-fascist campaigner.” He “reckons top members of the EDL are as dangerous as Hitler.”
He said: “The Government needs to treat gangs of white, far-right extremists like they do groups of Muslim extremists.”
Well, they do sound so very similar:
“Their leader Tommy Robinson, the pint-sized Fuhrer, says himself that we’re probably five years away from a Breivik-style incident in this country. So when are we going to act to stop it? These people are dangerous and they are armed and they are being led by racist dickheads.”
But 98% of the Star’s readers can’t be ready to vote for dickheads… Can they? What changed?
Posted: 15th, August 2011 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
