Today sees the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre and his obedient hackery at the Daily Mail mine the same seam of hatred that the paper exploited so callously in the 1930s: whipping up fear or otherness, with Jews now being replaced by Scary Muslims (tm), although the M-word is carefully skirted around, as the issue is couched in terms of the strain on resources, on schools, hospitals and housing.
Migrants and swearing together - BINGO!
“Official: Migrants set to make us Europe’s most populated nation … UK POPULATION SET TO ROCKET” thunders the front page headline, under the by-line of Steve Doughty, who is the paper’s “Social affairs correspondent”. You see, it’s not about religion, culture, beards, headscarves or spicy food, but about “housing and public services”, and, clearly, how busy Oxford Street gets at this time of year.
So what is the problem? “The ONS forecasts that between 2014 and 2039 the UK population will rise by 9.7million – from 64.6million to 74.3million … The increase will be the most dramatic over the next ten years when the ONS predicts that Britain will have to find room for an extra 4.4million people … It means that between 2014 and 2024, numbers will grow by 440,000 each year – more than the population of Dorset every 12 months”.
Graphs as misleading ...
We are then told that 51% of the population increase will be from “immigrants”, before a little sleight of hand is deployed to round that figure up to, er, 68%, not that this is to make it scary, oh no. Nor is the use of Migration Watch as the first cited “source”, or graphs with the Y-axis starting at over 50 million. Nor, no doubt, is the parallel deployment of an article warning of more Syrian refugees - a whole million of them!
“ONE MILLION more migrants could head for Europe over the winter because of the Syrian war, warns Turkey, as official says the EU risks 'disintegration' if it fails to tackle the crisis” screams the headline, as we hear “Turkey could find itself harbouring between three and four million displaced people … It could place even more pressure on countries later receiving them in the EU”. The Mail could stop demonising refugees, too.
... as they are unsubtle
The intention to frighten readers at the prospect of More Scary Muslims (tm) is rather more obvious here: an unnamed “source” accuses Turkey of “blackmail”, there are photos of refugees on the move, and to put the lid on it, we get Nigel “Thirsty” Farage ranting for all he’s worth, but having nothing useful to say (as usual). That the two articles are part of a single campaign to whip up fear is confirmed by the last paragraph of today’s editorial.
“New official figures suggest Britain’s population will grow by 10million in the next 25 years, largely because of migration. Yesterday, Turkey warned that Europe could see a million more Syrian refugees this winter alone, with many heading for Britain. Is this paper being unduly apocalyptic to worry that the ONS forecasts are desperately conservative?”
They’re all coming here! We can’t cope! We’re being overrun by foreigners! They talk and dress funny! And they breed! What the Mail cannot being itself to admit is that migration is what has shaped the UK, and will continue to shape it. And the paper should pack in demonising refugees. Because they are people too, even if they don’t read the Mail.
I'd have thought that babies would have constituted 'natural growth'. Or is that only white British babies?
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, props to them for warning us that the population will grow 'more than the size of Dorset every 12 months'. I now have an image of Dacre and his staff in the Mail newsroom, acting as if they're in mission control in a bad Michael Bay disaster film:
"Ye Gods, Paul, just look at the size of it!"
"Too cunting right, Littlejohn. It's a ball of migrants the size of Dorset! Call the president! Call Bruce Willis! Etc!"
There has been another propaganda development apart from the usual tedious Daily Heil thinly-veiled fascism.
ReplyDeleteEver so gradually there have been increased broadcast news attacks on the Erdogan regime in Turkey. Which is all a bit "strange" given said gangsters (their predecessors and, no doubt, successors) have been trampling all over democracy for years, including oppression and mass murder of Kurds, all of it of no more than passing interest to propaganda clerks like Hilsum and Simpson and, of course, Murdoch and Dacre.
Now why would that be? Could it be Erdogan's reluctance to invade Syria as a proxy for the USA and Europe? Or is there yet something else in play in here...........
Addendum to Erdogan comment:
ReplyDeleteAh yes. Here's the reason - http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/28/us-mideast-crisis-turkey-kurds-idUSKCN0SM2V620151028
Well I never.
Or something.
Oh, don't worry Mr Dacre! the way the current government is treating the UK population, there'll be plenty of room by the time they all arrive, one way or another...
ReplyDeletere "Hamlet's four-letter outburst shocks West End audience" - correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't this the speech that Benedict Cumberbatch made to remind people of the plight of migrants crossing the Med, which got appluause according to some reports (depending which you read)? Only the Mail could be shocked at a show of compassion for foreigners!
ReplyDelete