Muammar Al Khadafi

Guardian columnist Kia Abdullah has mocked the deaths of 3 students on her Twitter page - saying that she had smiled when she learned that the dead students had double barrelled surnames.

Then, along with a half hearted apology, she removed the comments only because the "consensus was that she should do".

A Guardian spokesman said that they are not responsible for her comments, and that she is only an occasional contributor, seemingly confirming that they will continue to use her writing despite her tasteless comments.

The three students to whom she referred died in a coach crash whilst enjoying a gap year in Thailand.

Full Story - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2010753/Guardian-columnist-Kia-Abdullah-Tweets-cruel-taunts-death-gap-year-boys.html

Now, lets leave aside the fact that her comments are - to say the least - distasteful no matter who they are about.

Would the Guardian have been as lukewarm in its condemnation had columnist Joe Smith, as white and as English as you can get, Tweeted his joy at the deaths of 3 students called Mohammed, Abdullah, and Aziz?

One can just imagine it now. "I heard 3 students died, then I looked at their names - Mohammed, Abdullah, and Aziz - is it wrong that I smiled?".

You think any 'occasional contributor' who wrote that would ever be getting their material published in the Guardian again, or just escaping with a non committal comment from said 'newspaper'?

Of course not. They'd be pilloried, probably prosecuted, and it would be years before any newspaper would touch their articles.

The left has its own standards of what are right and wrong, and they are not applied evenly to all. In a day or two this will all be forgotten.

The deaths of some are cause for jokes, and will attract only light condemnation, whereas others are utterly taboo.

In the world of the left it isn't the comment itself that matters, it's who says it, and about whom - some have far more right to offend, and get off without repercussions, than others.