The Daily Mail has a long history of inflammatory anti-immigration headlines and racially inciting reports regarding the decline of white birth rates in the UK, so when the newspaper won accolades for championing the story of Stephen Lawrence, many people from black and minority ethnic communities would have raised an eyebrow. How could such a newspaper which has arguably championed far right views be perceived as an advocate of racial justice? Yet once again the Daily Mail is up to its two-faced racial treachery in a story which suggested that far-right leader Marine Le Pen was the best prospect for French voters.
When JUST West Yorshire, an organisation that campaigns for racial justice, civil liberties and human rights in the Yorkshire and Humber region; welcomed the guilty verdicts of Gary Dobson and David Norris for the murder of Stephen Lawrence, they also mentioned that, “The Lawrence campaign became a cause célèbre due to the weight that the Daily Mail threw behind the Lawrence family’s campaign for justice.” (Read JUST welcomes Lawrence verdict)
I took exception to the Daily Mail being presented as a champion of racial justice when for so long they have published story after story inciting racial hatred. In the comments section of the article I wrote:
“…I am concerned that the article mentions the Daily Mail as one of the major supporters of the Lawrence’s campaign for justice.
This is a newspaper which is common for racially inciting headlines such as this: “Immigration and births to non-British mothers pushes UK population to record high” (22nd August 2008)
In another racially inciting headline it reads: “By 2066, white Britons ‘will be outnumbered’ if immigration continues at current rates” (18 November, 2010)
Are we to believe that a newspaper such as this genuinely championed justice for the Lawrence family?”
It did not take long for the Daily Mail to get back to what it does best, which is publishing sympathetic far right stories, and in this particular headline it was suggested that voting for far right leader Marine Le Pen was the best option for French people. Readers can read the entire article and justification for this position here, Despite her flaws, the only responsible vote in France next Sunday is one for Marine Le Pen (By Richard Waghorne: 20 April. 2012)
In this article Richard Waghorn says “Marine Le Pen remains, among an imperfect choice in urgent times, the only candidate capable of saving France’s control over her finances, borders, and identity.”
Marine Le Pen is the daughter of Jean Marie Le Pen, who was the former leader of the Front National in France, which is equivalent to the British National Party in the UK.
Her father was convicted of inciting racial hatred when he used a political campaign poster of a Muslim woman in a burqa next to a map of France covered in an Algerian flag and Muslim architecture shaped as missiles. (Read Le Pen in court accused of inciting racial hatred: France 24 News: 1 March, 2011)
Her father was also convicted in 1999 by a Munich Court for Holocaust denial. (Read Jean-Marie Le Pen repeats Holocaust comments in European Parliament: The Telegraph: By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels: 25 March 2009)
Marine Le Pen herself is no stranger to racial controversy. She compared Muslim street prayers to the occupation of Paris by the Nazis. (Read French ban on Muslim street prayers takes effect: The Nation: 16 September)
This is what Waghorn believes to be the best option for French people, which is much like saying that the British National Party is the best option for British people.
When it suits the British press and newspapers like the Daily Mail they switch sides as quickly as they sell newspapers and they get away with saying things which a person from a black or minority ethnic group would be condemned for if they mentioned the same views from a Black or Asian Nationalist perspective.
How many people know that in May 2009, newspapers such as Stourbridge News; Dudley News; Bromsgrove Advertiser; Redditch Advertiser; the Kidderminster shuttle; the Echo-News (Southern Essex); and the Colchester Evening Gazette displayed British National Party adverts in their newspapers?
The slogans of the far-right political party were spotted by Barry Kade an anti fascist who posted the findings on the anti-BNP Lancaster Unity blog website. (Read Spot the difference. Online newspapers or BNP leaflets? It’s hard to tell…)
Would these newspapers have taken adverts from Black Nationalists or Islamic groups? It is highly unlikely; but it does show how sympathetic the British media are to far right views.
Newspapers like the Daily Mail continue to play the divide and conquer tactic, on the one hand they warn whites of soaring ethnic birth rates and then they turn around and claim to be fighting for racial justice for black people.
Hopefully, this article will provoke readers into thinking about what the British press really stands for, because they certainly do not stand for racial justice.
For further research:
http://www.france24.com/en/20110301-far-right-le-pen-back-court-inciting-racial-hatred
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/French-ban-on-Muslim-street-prayers-takes-effect–30165486.html
http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/spot-difference-online-newspapers-or.html
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