Like a Virgo

Following the previous post, Andrew Bartlett has dug up some interesting information on Ben/Benjamin Virgo. To recap, Benjamin Virgo, a 34-year old student living in Bethnal Green, was quoted by Euan Ferguson in last Sunday's Observer smearing Galloway and using a frankly racist elision to do so. Ben Virgo, a 34-year old student living in Bethnal Green, was at the centre of the "rent-a-crowd" allegations against Oona King, in which the Virgo family were repeatedly used in New Labour photoshoots. King, it would seem, helped the family Virgo acquire a larger council flat, so they were returning a favour.

Andrew's found another appearance by Ben Virgo, this concerned King supporter, at a University College Conservative Party function:

"I met him last autumn at an event organised by UCL Conservative Society," writes Mr J Robertson. "I thought I'd found in him a solid Conservative supporter. His biggest political concern appeared to be his children's education in a school where many of the classmates do not speak English, and that he would ideally like to move from Bethnal Green."

There is a connection between Virgo's alleged assualt on Tuesday, his children's classmates allegedly not speaking English, and Galloway's election victory. It is the same one the BNP made when they ran their campaign against immigrants allegedly receiving preferential treatment for housing in Barking. Perhaps Virgo could move there, if Bethnal Green is not to his liking.

Quite incredibly, however, a run through Lexis-Nexis finds a further appearance from Ben Virgo in last Sunday's Observer, p.10, listed as "father of what the Mail called Labour's 'rent-a-family'". Unavailable on the website, Virgo is asked for his thoughts on the election in a supplement to the main paper:

Keen to find whether Oona King, whom we'd backed, had kept her seat, I stayed up. At 3am I checked the BBC website: Bethnal Green and Bow had not yet been called. Soon after 7am I checked the website to see 'RES(pect) GAIN FROM LAB. Considering Mr Galloway's single-issue opportunism and knowing the incendiary atmosphere in this area, we were disappointed.

My heart bleeds.