"The Telford affair reveals the grim reality of racism in Middle England"

     "For more than a week, this newspaper has doggedly dug up
     details and posed questions that have caused extreme
     discomfort to the West Mercia police and the town of Telford,
     which used to advertise itself on the television as the place to
     live. As a result of this determined and careful coverage, the
     police have agreed to reopen the investigation, in part, I
     imagine, to get this penetrating light off their blinking faces.
     This, surely, is the purpose of good journalism (and no, I am
     not sucking up to the editor). 

     Not so, says the ever-backward Telegraph (one of the only
     papers which attacked the Macpherson report for being unkind
     to our bobbies) which, together with The Sun and The
     Shropshire Star seems to be quite traumatised at the idea that
     such things could possibly happen in a place so ordinary, so
     decent, so English."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/This_Britain/2000-02/telford030200.shtml

     3 February 2000 The Independent

     ----------------------------------------------------------

     Pathologist's doubts on 'suicide' hanging 

     Family of black man in double death riddle say police
     failed to make race hate connection as doctor asks
     for further documentation

     Race issues in the UK: special report 
     Will Woodward

     Thursday January 27, 2000
     "Last night Jason's widow Sinead, 23, told the Guardian how
     she last saw her husband of four months just a few minutes 
     before midnight on December 31. 

     The couple had gone with friends to the Elephant and Castle
     pub in Telford, opposite the Shropshire Star building where 
     Mr McGowan worked as a production manager. 

     They paid £5 to get in and bought drinks and cigars. Jason
     asked his friends if they had any new year's resolutions but
     told them he was happy with a beautiful wife a home and a job
     he loved." 

     ---------------------------------------------------------- 

     Race issues in the UK: special report 
     Vikram Dodd and Will Woodward

     Friday January 28, 2000 "Guardian"

     The Shropshire Star newspaper in Telford, where Jason McGowan
     once worked and which employs his wife, Sinead McGowan, and 
     mother, Doreen McGowan, yesterday ran a front-page comment 
     criticising national coverage of the deaths. 

     Under the headline Jason: is the grief distorting the facts?,
     the paper's editor, Adrian Faber, criticised the Independent
     newspaper for suggesting the deaths could have been caused
     by a "racist lynch mob"."

     ----------------------------------------------------------

     footnote to
     http://www.perceptions.couk.com/laworjustice.html#our
     http://www.perceptions.couk.com/review.html
     http://www.perceptions.couk.com/mediauk.html

     ----------------------------------------------------------

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