The bomb plot that didn’t make the news headlines

Charlie Kimber

Police claimed last week that they had seized what was potentially the largest ever haul of chemical explosives plus a rocket launcher and a nuclear and biological protection suit.

A lawyer acting for the prosecution said the people that the haul was seized from had “some kind of masterplan”.

But for once the national media did not react with stories about a plot to blow up a football ground or bring down airliners, or some other gross threat.

There were no lofty editorials about “home grown terrorists”.

Home secretary John Reid did not hold a special press conference peppered with Churchillian rhetoric. The entire national press coverage in the first week after the arrests amounted to 52 words.

And the reason was that those arrested were not “Muslim terrorists” but people linked to the Nazi British National Party (BNP).

Robert Cottage, 49, of Talbot Street, Colne, appeared before Burnley magistrates last week charged with possession of an explosive substance.

He was charged under the Explosives Substances Act 1883 (not terrorism charges). Some 22 chemical components are believed to have been recovered from his house.

Cottage stood for the BNP in the May elections in the Vivary Bridge ward of Pendle Council.

And 62 year old retired dentist David Bolus Jackson, of Trent Road, Nelson, was charged with similar offences.

It has been reported that police discovered a rocket launcher, a nuclear biological suit, chemicals and BNP literature at his home.

Unlike the Forest Gate raid in east London in June, which involved 250 police, some of them armed, Lancashire police entered Cottage’s home with a handful of unarmed officers.

There was no “air exclusion zone” or assaults on neighbours, no closing down of surrounding streets, and no smear stories about those arrested.

Superintendent Neil Smith instantly moved to reassure residents and stressed, “It is not a bomb making factory.” He was able to add that it was not related to terrorism. The pair have now been remanded in custody and will appear at Burnley Crown Court on 23 October.

Unlike the rest of the press, Socialist Worker put the story prominently on its website as soon as the information became available. It has proved one of our most successful web news stories ever (A terror raid that doesn’t make the headlines - despite chemical explosives and a rocket launcher).

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