The Achilles heel of 'Jackboot' Straw

Many commentators are puzzling over why former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw - after killing tens of thousands of Muslims abroad - has now launched a racist attack on Muslims at home. Hmm, yeah, like that's a hard one.

Too often in this debate Jack Straw is made out to be some kind of liberal or something. I know he looks and sounds a bit like a harmless sheep, but in reality Straw is a bloodthirsty wolf, albeit a wolf in sheep's clothing. Perhaps those who doubt Straw's authoritarian streak ought to recall his time as Home Secretary, where he was responsible for the Asylum and Immigration Bill, the attempted removal of trial by jury and legal aid in many cases, the anti-terrorism bill, the curfew on teenagers, mandatory drug testing for criminal suspects, and a reactionary attitude towards cannabis, among other things. Indeed, one of his early admirers was Margaret Thatcher. She said "I trust Jack Straw. He is a very fair man." No wonder Blair appointed him Foreign Secretary after such high praise.

However, one possible factor in this disgusting affair, which has seen yet another New Labour politician demonise one of the poorest and most powerless sections of British society so that they might climb up the greasy pole of political power, has surely been somewhat overlooked. Might it not be that Jack Straw wants Muslim women who come to see him to take off their veils so that he has something with which to clean his hands with - hands still dripping with the blood of tens of thousands of Iraqis?