By Hicham Yezza

Just when the Tories’ “operation detoxify” seemed to near some sort of breakthrough, somebody gloriously breaks ranks and drops a big one for all to see.

BBC News has just reported the horrifying story of an Albanian immigrant who, refused entry to the UK, took the Eurostar back to France but leaped to his death before arrival.

When confronted with human tragedy at its bleakest, one often finds oneself assailed by a plethora of philosophical conundrums. For instance: whether this was suicide or botched escape, what depths of misery and despair could have driven him to take the leap/risk? Tory MEP Richard Ashworth, however, who was on board the train, was clearly preoccupied with deeper issues:

“It defies logic, how you get a door open on a train at high speed.”

In case people mistook his question for a show of concern, he went on:

“They then took the track back to Ashford, put us off, and we then had to wait for the next train to come along which was full, coming back from Disneyland.”

Absurdly, there’s more:

“It was standing room only, and we finally got back to London at about 10.30pm.”

The BBC report ends on the rather weary note “Mr Ashworth criticised Eurostar’s communication with passengers.”

Hicham Yezza is editor-in-chief of Ceasefire. He can be contacted at: editor[at]ceasefiremagazine[dot]co[dot]uk