Reality Bites
THE COUNTRY was left in a state of shock after Jill Dando, Crimewatch and Holiday presenter was gunned down on her doorstep on Monday. Dando was shot in the head as she got out of her car on Monday morning. A smartly-dressed man wearing what has been described as a Barbour jacket was seen walking away from the area.
The cold-blooded nature of the murder has prompted speculation that it was a contract killer. Her work on Crimewatch had made Dando more conscious about personal safety, although friends and colleagues knew of no specific threat.
Another possibility was that she died at the hands of a stalker. She had been engaged to marry Alan Farthing, a gynaecologist, in the autumn and there has been speculation that this could have prompted an attack. Dando had been stalked in the past, although this is thought to be unrelated to the killing.
Tributes have been pouring in from all over the country, led by the Queen and Tony Blair. Parallels have been drawn with the death of Princess Diana and the way in which people feel personally the death of a well-known person. Mirroring the events of 1997, the condolence page on the BBC website has been deluged with messages, which was said to be registering an entry every second.
SEVERAL PEOPLE were injured when a nailbomb exploded in Brick Lane, east London, at the heart of a predominantly Bangladeshi community. The explosion came seven days to the hour after a similar bomb ripped through Brixton in south London, injuring 39 people. Responsibility for the blast has been claimed by four extremist organisations.
Police forces across areas of the country with large ethnic minority populations were placed on a state of alert by Scotland Yard, for fear of further attacks. The anti-terrorist branch is investigating a faction of Combat 18 which circulated details of how to make a nailbomb-timer two weeks ago. Anti-racism campaigners said they had heard of several other possible target areas, including Green Street in east London and Wolverhampton.
Police say the bomb appeared to have gone off in a car being driven along Brick Lane, possibly to the local community police station. The driver was one of those injured. No warning had been given and experts say that had the bomb exploded outside the car, the toll of casualties could have been far higher.
The two bombs have sparked widespread fears of a racist campaign against immigrants, with other groups such as the White Wolves making threats to prominent MP's.
THE SCOTTISH NATIONAL party has been thrown into disarray as their campaign for the Scottish Parliament falls further and further behind. Last week one poll put them twenty points behind Labour, and Alex Salmond has had to deny reports that fundamentalists in his party were planning to ditch him as leader.
Activists were pinning their hopes on Sean Connery, but it was feared that even the Most Famous Living Scot (after Ewan McGregor) would be unable to halt the slide. The former 007 flew into Scotland and delivered a speech in Edinburgh on Monday. However opponents have poured scorn on a star who lives in the Bahamas and is not registered to vote in the election.
SNP leader Alex Salmond has tried to shrug off talk of a slide, alleging that most of the newspapers in Scotland were "in the pocket" of the Labour Party.
"Instead of dancing to a tune they (the media) want to establish what we have decided to do is take our campaign into the streets and homes of the people of Scotland. On that campaign we think we can win.
However his position has not been helped by photo-calls which have reduced him to sticking flyers on car windscreens after he was unable to find anyone on the streets to campaign to.