Quote:
Are you saying most Brits wouldn't bat an eyelash if there were an unpopular prime minister (let's call him Tony Blair) and The Guardian ran a similar piece implying Blair should be assassinated?


I doubt that the majority would think it was amusing, but I don't think there'd be much outrage (except among the rest of the press). Certainly if, as in this case, it was a "throw-away" comment at the end of a piece of op-ed.

One difference, however, is that we don't have a history of our PM's being assassinated, so this kind of comment would be unlikely to be made in the first place. In fact, no PM has been assassinated since Spencer Perceval, which was in 1812, and today's newspaper readers, even Guardian readers, are unlikely to recognise John Bellingham as readily as they would Oswald.
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-- roger