Blair's Beemer Used As Trojan Horse

By Londonist Last edited 198 months ago
Blair's Beemer Used As Trojan Horse
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In a story that's bound to excite Evening Standard headline writers, a group of four asylum seekers have attempted to smuggle themselves into Britain by hiding in Tony Blair's car.

Before you get Jason Bourne-style visuals of dodgy-looking men clinging onto the chassis as our witless ex-PM is driven around town, we should make clear that this is in fact Tony's new motor. The custom BMW 7 Series model, complete with bulletproof glass and reinforced doors, was on its way from the German car company's Munich HQ to London. Seeing a plum opportunity for making it to our green and (occasionally) pleasant land, the foursome apparently secreted themselves in the supposedly impregnable delivery truck somewhere in France, and were able to skip nimbly past customs and immigration into Britain. The chutzpah of it!

What seemed like a perfectly executed plan run aground, however, when the £100,000 vehicle was delivered to its final destination – a police garage in Vauxhall, belonging to the Met's Counter-Terrorism Command. Instead of jumping out into the flashing lights of Piccadilly Circus, as they may have imagined, the four were confronted by police offices who arrested them and promptly turned them over to immigration authorities.

Deploying the love of pompous verbiage that is an institutional trait, a Met spokesperson declared that the security of the car "had been compromised" and it would be sent back to Germany as a result. Perhaps we can send some people back in the opposite direction? It's surely a more comfortable way to travel than Ryanair.

By Dean Nicholas

Image courtesy of sjoerdtenkate's Flickrstream

Last Updated 27 September 2007