Well, it’s quite the coup for Private Eye, isn’t it? If you’re a satirical magazine, there are two ways of showing that you’re having an impact. One is to provoke Islamists to the point where they murder your staff, as in the case of the Charli Hebdo murders in Paris ten years ago, or the Danish cartoons of Mohammed, twenty years ago. The other is when police arrest individuals simply for holding up your front cover. And this is the startling situation faced by Ian Hislop, the editor of Private Eye.
His cover, mocking the Government’s proscription of the group Palestine Action, was held up as a placard by Jon Farley, a Palestinian Solidarity campaigner, at a silent march in Leeds last weekend.
