The Tories have been forced to apologise after students at Britain’s St Andrews University burnt an effigy of US President Barack Obama at a Conservative Association Party.
Students from the US - who account for almost a third of the undergraduate population in the Fife town - claimed the incident was anti-American and, at worst, racist.
Washington sources also branded the stunt an “act of violence”, raising fears that it could harm relations between Obama's Democrats and David Cameron's Conservatives.
Members of the St Andrews University Conservative Association set fire to the effigy of the US president on the beach at East Sands in the town on Friday evening. The organisation has a 30-year history of similar stunts and typically chooses a prominent socialist as its subject.
University chiefs summoned the president of the society to discuss “very understandable concerns”. However they later said the culprits were “naive and crassly insensitive, not intentionally racist”.
The young Tories have now decided to end the tradition of burning effigies and will write a letter to President Obama to apologise.
Matthew Marshall, president of the group, said: “This is undoubtedly a stupid act and it is deeply regretted by all of us in the St Andrews Conservative Association. I will make sure this never happens again.”
In an online statement, he added: “Each year the association votes for a candidate who has contributed the most to left-wing politics to burn at our annual heretic burning.
“This is an annual tradition which dates back numerous years, with previous heretics including Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband and Alex Salmond.”
A Scottish Conservative spokesman said: “This was undoubtedly a stupid act and the St Andrews Conservative Association has recognised that.”
But a Democratic Party analyst in Washington said: “Burning someone in effigy is an act of violence, and such acts rarely solve anything.”
*A Russian newsreader shocked viewers when she apparently showed Barack Obama her middle finger during a live broadcast.
Tatyana Limanova, an award-winning broadcaster, had just finished reading an item about Russian president Dmitry Medvedev taking over the chairmanship of the Asian Pacific Cooperation organisation.
As she added that the post had “previously been held by Barack Obama”, she immediately raised her middle finger at the camera in the rude gesture.
The REN channel, which has 120 million viewers, has not commented on the incident. - Daily Mail