Our “Looks Like Beirut” for this week:
The blustery Yorkshire mill town of Dewsbury has been compared to Beirut, and its recent history as the home of the 7/7 suicide bomber Sidique Khan, a violent gang murder and a bedrock of support for the BNP provoked one newspaper to describe it as “the town that dare not speak its name”.
So the town is planning to rebrand itself – no idea to what – maybe London? Who knows. In any case, the reference to Beirut doesn’t seem to be based on the town’s current infrastructure but rather the caliber of people who live there.
“Dewsbury can do something which would become a symbol to the nation that Britain is no longer prepared to be the worst in the industrialised world for child well-being,” Mr Wood said.
So at the moment, the “child well-being level” at Dewsbury is comparable to Beirut? You’ve got to be joking. Since there is no quote on the Beirut comment, I’m going to assume the journalist, Jonathan Brown, is to blame for the comparison. One LLB certificate is on the way.