Racist thug deserves jail

The 12-year jail sentence imposed by a judge on Stuart Kerr is no less than he deserves.

Kerr firebombed a shop run by an Asian family in Chichester and when police went to his home the reasons were clear.

His bedroom was a shrine to Hitler and he had displayed a football poster with sickening remarks about black players.

In the past, judges and the police have been criticised by ethnic minority groups for not giving racial offences the attention they deserved.

But there's no doubt police acted promptly in this case and made determined efforts to catch the culprit after a series of previous attacks at the shop.

And Judge Anthony Thorpe told Kerr in no uncertain terms he was guilty of an abominable racial crime.

Racist thugs like Kerr have no place in our society and the only good news from the whole sorry affair is that the fire did not spread and no one was hurt.

Bigot's ban

Church leaders in Brighton say they're not discriminating against gays and lesbians at the Clarendon Centre because their ban on hiring it applies to anyone advocating sex outside marriage.

But, as gays cannot legally get married in this country, they haven't got much chance of complying with the centre's wishes.

We appreciate their sincere wish to promote Christian values because that's what the centre's all about.

But Christianity is also about

tolerance and in Brighton, with its large gay population, this ban will be widely seen as bigotry.

Blair's babe

Hove Labour MP Ivor Caplin is

normally a devoted follower of the Prime Minister.

But now Tony and Cherie Blair appear to be following in the wake of Mr Caplin and his wife Maureen.

Just like Maureen, who recently gave birth to a son many years after her last child, Cherie's announced that she's expecting a new Blair babe when her youngest daughter is already 11.

Moral: If the Caplin fits, wear it.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.