3 AUGUST

EGYPTIANS BANNED FROM CROSS CHANNEL SWIMMING RACE

[ 3 August 1956 ]

Today in 1956, The Times reported that Billy Butlin, the owner of Bultins amusement parks and holiday homes, would not allow any Egyptians to participate in the annual cross-Channel swimming race he sponsored. The surprise announcement came a week after the Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.

BRITISH AIRWAYS’ DOUBLE STANDARDS

[ 3 August 2018 ]

A letter published on 3 August 2018 in the Guardian, signed by leading LGBTQIA+ activists and several MPs, condemned British Airways for profiting from its willing cooperation in the deportation of failed asylum seekers, who had been persecuted for their sexuality, while at the same time sponsoring the UK’s largest gay pride event at Brighton. The letter declared that it was an ‘insult that many of those deported on British Airways are LGBTQIA+ people who should be marching with us at the parade but instead are brutally rounded up and ejected from the UK to face poverty, persecution and, in some cases, death.’ It added out that ‘the presence of companies that profit off deportations is an affront to the vision of freedom Pride represents.’¹

FOOTNOTE

1. Damien Gayle, “Brighton Pride Sponsor BA urged not to help with deportations,” the Guardian,3 August 2018, p8 and “British Airways not fit to sponsor Pride,”  the Guardian, 3 August 2018, Journal Letters p. 7.

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