There are over 1,500 race crimes a

WEEK in this country and we are worried about 40 idiots in Bulgaria

RACISM has left me feeling at a new low this week.

I’m not talking about the 30 or 40 morons who marred England’s match in Bulgaria on Monday night.

That was bad enough – but it is nothing compared to the blatant hypocrisy since then.

Following the events in Sofia, there was outrage – Twitter was off its axis, there was blanket coverage on television and other social media went into overdrive.

In fact, the BBC even dedicated a seven-minute slot to it as the lead item on the news.

Fast-forward a few days and the topic was again in the spotlight during Thursday night’s ‘Question Time’.

I saw an audience member, who happened to be Indian, making a public plea for her son to be spared being called ‘a p**i’ and ‘a w**’ – as he was on an almost-daily basis.

Timeline

There was also a mixed-race lad sat in the audience who was clearly upset at the way he was being treated in this country because of the colour of his skin.

That could so have easily been me. Within seconds of the programme airing, I scrolled through my timeline on Twitter to see if this had been commented upon by people keen to jump on a convenient bandwagon. And that’s exactly what it was, convenient.

If you look closer to home – and you can research this topic on Youtube if you want – England fans have been filmed chanting their support tf for f far-right i ht agitator it t T Tommy Robinson and moaning about ‘pikeys’ all within the past 12 months.

Before this international break, England boss Gareth Southgate asked for us not to judge other nations as we still haven’t got g our own house in order. How right he was.

If you look ok closer to home, me, then you will ll see just how w deep t hat problem runs in our own country. A staggering 78,473 arrests ts were made last ast year for racism cism and hate crimes. mes.

To save you u a job, I’ll work out the maths. That’s more than 1,500 every week and more than 200 each day. So, on average, there are 200 people l i involved l di in racially i ll aggravated incidents every 24 hours in this country – and we are worried about 40 idiots at a football match in Bulgaria?

I say it again: It’s hypocrisy of the highest g order.

The only reason I know this is because a BBC newsreader trotte trotted out the statistics as par part of her seven-minute re report on Bulgaria.

It was a throwaway line – that there had been an 11 per cent rise since last year.

A sentence that t ook about f i ve s seconds to say, out of th the six minutes and 55 se seconds that were dev devoted t o what happened i in Sofia.

I couldn’t believe the figures. A few days later, after those heart-felt pleas on ‘Question Time’, not one commentator tt hi highlighted hli ht d what h t had h d happened. None of those who were so outraged by what had taken place in Bulgaria saw fit to comment and give the issue some perspective in light of what is going on here.

Personally, I think it is getting worse. The figures back that up.

Frightened

And for the first time since I was 10 or 11 years old, I’m feeling frightened in my own country.

Now, I’m six feet four inches tall and well capable of looking after myself. But I’m now literally looking over my shoulder.

That’s why racism has left me feeling lower than a snake’s belly.

Not just because the issue was highlighted again in eastern Europe. But because we’ve our own problems. They’re real and growing.

I just hope the hypocrites who condemned what took place in Sofia can see it too.