Hi ,
Let's start with something important: there have been fewer than 3000 people at all the anti-migrant protests across the UK. Over the last few years, millions of us have come out at protests to call for more action on the climate, an end to the genocide in Gaza, for trans people to be protected, and for an end to austerity. Barely any of these protests were covered by the press – and certainly none were described as part of a wave of mass unrest, even though public opinion has moved enormously in the last decade to favour a more equal society.
The newspapers, politicians, and pundits demanding we tear down human rights and embrace cruelty are posting the same images of 5 people waving flags in masks because the number of people joining these actions is tiny. There's over 24,000 people on this mailing list alone; more people are reading this right now than these protests have ever gathered. The vast majority of people more desperately want a more equal country that works better for us all.
The problem is not that the UK has become a completely different country in a few months, it's that our politicians and media are letting a very small group of radicalised people online and very wealthy lobbyists dictate our future. During the summer recess, the media almost exclusively covered the small groups of vandals who are trying to use the St George's flag as an ethno-nationalist symbol. In the first days after the recess, the government has finally responded to the fears stoked by having the Prime Minister claim he loves flags and he always sits in front of one. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also loves flags! She has union jack bunting on her shed, which is frankly a weird place to hang bunting.
Unfortunately, this also has a very harmful side. Let's quote Yvette Cooper again.
She said this in 2015: For our country to have a net migration target which includes refugees is just immoral. Treating refugees the same as legal migration for work, family or study is just plain wrong."
And here she is speaking yesterday: "We are bringing forward new immigration rules this week to temporarily suspend new applications under the existing dedicated refugee family reunion route. Until the new framework is introduced, refugees will be covered by the same family migration rules and conditions as everyone else."
The imagined power of the 3000 is enough for ministers to bring in deeply harmful refugee policies against their own objections and get the Prime Minister to agree asylum seekers are dangerous to walk past. We need to stop letting our deeply unequal media landscape dictate our future.
The good news is, we're more than capable of matching 3000 people:
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