LOVED ABROAD AS AT HOME

It must be pleasing to Bob Geldof to know that he can still mobilise large numbers of people in outraged protest. It's just nowadays they're mobilising against him: there was a protest march on the British Mission in Nairobi after his call for Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to "get a grip and go away". Museveni is seeking an unconstitutional third term in power. It's not gone down very well in Uganda:

Mr Museveni's supporters hit back by mobilising a mob to rally on the streets and even make a half-hearted attempt to storm the British mission in the Ugandan capital.

"Mob", of course, being the Daily Telegraph word of choice for any group of more than three people with manual jobs getting together in a public place.

"We are saying no to external influence from neo-colonialists, specifically the UK," Moses Nuwagaba of the Makerere University Movement Forum told a Kampala newspaper. "We are telling them that they ruled us for 100 years and we did not see any elections or term limits, so what moral authority do they have now to preach democracy to us?"

Demonstrators waved placards reading ''Geldof, sober up and shut up'' and
''No to drug addicts and rock homos''.

Those opposed to Museveni's third term have been trying to organise a counter-demo (or "a mob of their own", as we expect the Telegraph would put it) but there seems to be no end of confusion over if the police are going to allow them to do so:

PRALP deputy national coordinator Higenyi Kemba told the press at Katonga Road, Nakasero that the demonstration was on and they did not expect security agencies to meddle with it.

“If security agencies meddle with the demo they will have become insecurity organisations,” Kemba said.

Clever wording; cheers. It's unclear what chants the pro-Geldof campaigners are planning to use. "Up with drug addicts and rock homos", perhaps?

Thanks to Eleanor G for the tip-off.

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