AS hundreds of copies of the latest edition of France’s Charlie Hebdo magazine go on sale in Britain this week, one Irish newsagents in North-West London has decided against stocking the satirical publication.
Eddie Brown, who runs Eddie’s Newsagents on Cricklewood Lane, told The Irish Post that he has no plans to stock the ‘survivors’ edition of the magazine, which arrived in Britain on Wednesday, despite a request from a regular customer for a copy.
He said: “I’ve decided not to stock the magazine out of respect for the local community.
“I rang Smiths to ask for a few copies for a regular customer who had requested it, but they said that they’d only had a limited number of the edition. I definitely wouldn’t stock it myself though.”
Split across the boroughs of Brent, Barnet and Camden, Cricklewood is a culturally diverse area.
Eddie’s Newsagents, located around two miles from Brent Cross Shopping Centre, is situated in an area with a strong immigrant population.
According to the Census 2011, almost half of Brent's residents were born in Britain in comparison to the national average of 86.2 per cent. There is also a greater number of residents in the borough who are Irish-natives than the figure (shown in diagram below) across Britain as a whole.
Furthermore, 40.8 per cent of Brent's population were born outside the EU.
The latest edition of Charlie Hebdo is published a week after many of the magazine's editorial team were killed in an attack at their Paris office.
Five of Charlie Hebdo's cartoonists - including the editor - lost their lives in the massacre.
Smiths News and Menzies are expected to be purchasing up to a 2,000 copies to supply to stores nationwide.
The former had said that it was due to be bringing up to 1,000 copies into Britain.
Distributors Menzies confirmed that it will also be supplying hundreds of copies to stores across the country.
"I can confirm that Menzies Distribution will handle supplies of the upcoming Charlie Hebdo special edition," said the firm's Head of Communications Dave Shedden.
He was unable to confirm to The Irish Post which particular outlets would be due to sell copies of the magazine.
The edition may only reach some British shelves on Friday.
Source: Office for National Statistics & Department for Work & Pensions
