Like a very British bulldog chewing a wasp...

Oct 2 2009 Hancock

BIRMINGHAM’S most patriotic protester – ex-policeman Ray Egan – has been the victim of a nasty facial attack on foreign soil, Hancock can reveal.

Ray, a familiar sight in his John Bull garb outside factory gates at Longbridge, Land Rover, Jaguar, LDV and elsewhere, was the victim of an overseas sting which left him looking “like the Elephant Man.”

Ray was standing outside Barcelona Airport as he prepared to fly home from a Mediterranean cruise, when he went to take a swig from his can of John Smith’s. “I picked up the can and the next thing I knew, a wasp had flown away,” he tells us.

“Within a minute or two, my bottom lip had swollen up and I ended up looking like the Elephant Man. I had to go to the airport’s medical centre. That’ll teach me for chewing on a wasp.”

Ray describes his cruise as a “holiday from hell.” “I got swine flu on the ship – I was glad to get on the flight home,” he said.