The Daily Telegraph And The Britishness Of Dhiren Barot

This morning, the Daily Telegraph reports that,

"A British al-Qa'eda fanatic plotted to murder thousands of innocent people on both sides of the Atlantic, a court heard yesterday.

The detailed plans presented to terrorist handlers by Muslim convert Dhiren Barot revealed his goal of striking at major buildings and railway stations with gas bombs in cars, detonating a radioactive dirty bomb and blowing up a train under the Thames in London...

In an encrypted document called Radioactive Children inside a file called Brad Pitt, the Londoner outlined plans for a dirty bomb in the capital..."

Barot is an Indian-born childhood immigrant from Kenya. If he qualifies to be described as 'British' at all then it is a status he has acquired by naturalisation - a gift to him from the British people.

He does not qualify to be described as a 'Londoner' - he may have been permitted to settle in London, but he is not a Londoner in the same way that Abdullah Baybasin is not a Londoner.

His actions show that he despises the United Kingdom, its people, its traditions and its way of life to such an extent that he planned to wreak carnage and sow mayhem upon them. If he is 'British' then he should have been facing charges of treason.

Britain hanged William Joyce, an American citizen, for treason when his crimes were arguably far less serious than Barot's.

And if the Daily Telegraph doesn't understand that this guy probably considers being described as British as insulting then it shouldn't use the term so loosely.