About 250 people protested at the Daily Mail this evening over the papers coverage of asylum seekers. The protest, called by groups in defence of asylum seekers, drew parallels between recent reporting and the Mails coverage before the second world war, when it also opposed allowing asylum seekers into Britain and supported Hitler's regime and Mosley’s blackshirts.
An attempt was made to give the Daily Mail a heart. A six-foot tall red painted paper mache heart. Naturally this was doomed to failure, as a glance at tomorrow’s Mail will confirm. Protesters chanted “Daily Mail = Hate Mail”, the slogan coined for Mayday last year.
Over the past few weeks, as the state has sought to portray asylum seekers as terrorists, and as Blunket prepares to deport many asylum seekers back to Iraq in time to be bombed, the Mail and its closest rival the Express have stepped up their attacks on asylum seekers. The most ridiculous lies concerning access to benefits and supposed luxuries are heaped upon those seeking to escape persecution or simply improve their lives. Free movement is, it seems, the preserve of the rich.
In this war or words it is important that we continue to protest at the daily diet if media lies.