Press Express

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GANGE SuL AFTER "JAWS" , It took months before the film moguls were ready with their gory follow-up... "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the wateI...

After the Tatchell massacre, the team that organised his assassination were back in production before the blood was dry on the cobbles.

This time, they were in Ireland, hot on the heels of their tavourite quarry, -Red Ken Livingstone, the man they say wants us all underground.

Livingstone's visit has the makings of a media disaster. The press had no advance leak. They failed to work up a reception committee, and they had to trail around West Belfast, waiting for the press conference before they could photograph and listen to the GLC leader.

But these were battlehardened veterans. They had just completed their biggest kill in years and confidence was sky-high. They went in questions loaded, angles slanted, and epithets charged.

We should remember how much was against them. It used to be the case that the Provos represented nobody at all in Northern Ireland. A visit to West Belfast in their company should have been a midnight flit over garden fences while the hostile population closed their doors and glowered from behind curtains.

Popularity

So Livingstone's apparent popularity on his visit should have been hard to explain. But since that story was blown, it has been replaced by another official version -this time; one of racism. it is a picture of West Belfast and other Republican areas as havens of degenerate and possibly genetically perverted maniacs.

The Sun began promisingly enough, with its headline based on Foot's attack on Livingstone - The Falls Guy. (In general the press coverage owes a fair bit to Michael Foot for sanctioning and leading the attack).

But the Sun seemed a little jaded, and even its editorial line lacked its usual sparkle. "Maybe Red Ken might even consider calling an international conference of the enemies of Britain."

It is to the Daily Mail that the laurels should go. The paper ran the future of Foot and Livingstone's visit side by side under a generic strapline, headlined "Defiance of Foot.. and the shame of Red Ken"

Livingstone also had a headline all to himself -Only the IRA's Best for GLC everywhere to shake his hand."

That really was a nice touch. No doubt it was the IRA who created the Catholic ghettoes in the first place and peopled them with simple folk prepared to wait for centuries to pass so they could shake the hand of this strange man from London.

In one revealing slip, Edwards refers to West Belfast as "the IRA side of Belfast" - a phrase which almost seems to imply they are the legitimate voice of the Catholic people.

Mirror

So much for that visit. Now let's get back to the Daily Mirror. The front page within one respect much like the others. A large headline read "Condemned: Foot and GLC slam Red Ken's IRA visit"

But the top of the page advertised an embarrassing serial which the Mirror launched on the same day called "Contact - A soldier's The series had been advertised in advance so presumably could not be cancelled. It filled three pages in the middle of the paper and was written by a former officer with the Parachute Regiment called A.F.N. Clarke. The paper adver tised it as "Raw, violent, territying ... trom the streets of Ulster"

The officer, whose book is published this week, did not set out to attack the Army. He claimed "Nobody realises the waste and sheer stupidity of wat more keenly than the Britist - soldier"

But inside these three pages were I'm afraid many deplored deplored by the Daily Mal. more of these fantasies so How about this to start "Suddenly, 30 doors in the Old Park district of Belfast splinter and burst open under the onslaught of army fury and boots. ! More than 100 people - the elderly, the infirm, the young, the tired and the lonely - are turfed out of bed.

"Screams and yells and thuds shatter the morning stillness. 'Filthy English pigs. Para bastards. I've got a heart condition, she's got epilepsy: You've broke down my door.' March 21 28 14 29 8 15 23 30 Monday 1 16 31 12 27 Friday 13 20 Still further down this tale of unlikely adventures this so-called soldier writes "Experience has taught me to have my own 'Heavy' with me during on-the-street questioning - any negative replies warrant a thump and threatening behaviour an immediate arrest and a trip to HQ.

"The hate is still in their eyes but nobody dares to air his feelings."

There is also an account of a teenager being shot by a rubber bullet with what the army refer to candidly as a "dick gun" (the bullet catches him between the legs).

The report also alleges that the Army help themselves freely to material from vehicles they have stopped for checks. It outlines how his patrol had helped themselves to extension phones from what they described as 'a nervous type' of telephone engineer in a van they had just stopped.

The fantasy continues with an account oi an observation centre. "Dirty maga zines by the dozen are stacked on the floor... a pile of sad fantasies gathering dust.

"Most of the best pages have been ripped out and now adorn the walls. These go unnoticed, except by newcomers. Sightless eyes stare at oversized nipples, spread thighs, beckoning tongues, dreaming of the girl at home." This account also gives the reaction of the soldiers when an army sniper. kills a gunman. "The first time our sniper missed the gunman, but made sure the second time with the perfect shot in the centre of the target. Everyone cheered, of course."

There is more in the same vein, but since this is all fantasy it is probably improper to repeat it in a responsible paper like Socialist Organiser.

Reading the Daily Mirror we can now see Livingstone's mistake clearly. He was wrong to go and visit the Sinn. Fein representatives. He should simply have asked the army's public relations department to allow him a candid trip around Belfast in the company of the Paras. It would have shown him all he needed to know. It would have made a lovely fantasy in khaki.

WOMEN, Immigration and Nationality: meeting to discuss our future as a campaign. Sunday March 13, 1.30 to 4.30pm, County Hall, London SEI. All wom.

en welcome. Creche on premises.

LABOUR Committee on

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