29/10/2020
Digital Spy and the Jewish Chronicle both report that a man from Bristol who sports allegedly neo-Nazi tattoos has led to the suspension of a woodworking contest by the Sky History channel. It was noticed after transmission of the first episode of the series, called The Chop, that Darren Lumsden's notable array of facial tattoos included several which encode white power and neo-Nazi ideology in numerical references. The Anti-Defamation League in the US maintains a comprehensive database of hate group emblems and phrases and notes that “88” is often a code for “HH” or “Heil Hitler”. Other tattoos on Mr Lumsden's face seemed to refer to white supremacist sloganeering. Sky History at first claimed that there was no evidence that the woodworker had extremist beliefs. However, after being contacted by concerned viewers, they have agreed to take the show off the air until the truth of the matter can be ascertained. ““While we further investigate the nature, and meaning, of Darren’s tattoos, we have removed the video featuring him from our social media pages, and will not be broadcasting any episodes of The Chop: Britain’s Top Woodworker until we have concluded that investigation. “Sky History stands against racism and hate speech of all kinds,” read a statement issued by the Sky Corporation on Tuesday evening.
https://www.hopenothate.org.uk/
https://network23.org/bristolantifascists/
