Iraqi translators campaign – MPs response
The Guardian is reporting today that in a case earlier this year the Home Office made special considerations for an Iraqi translator, and this precedence may have an impact on this campaign.
There is no doubt now that this issue has ratcheted up the media agenda and the government may be forced to take action. Through gritted teeth, even Guido admits it.
But, as is the case with most governments, Gordon Brown can simply wait for the media to move on and then ignore it. Hence, the course of action for bloggers should be to
(1) Write about the issue; and
(2) Urge readers to write to their MPs and get them to take action; and
(3) Collect a list of MPs who have responded and publish it.
So I’m nicking this from Justin and adding to it:
Conservatives (1):
Anne Milton
Labour (7):
Celia Barlow
Frank Dobson
Patricia Hewitt
David Lammy
Andrew Smith
Dr Rudi Vis
Paul Truswell (via Ian Clenshaw)
Wayne David
Lib Dems (2):
John Barrett
Robert Smith
Please publish your MP’s response on your blog or in the comments and I will link it. And share the list too.
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Filed in: Current affairs, Middle East
Is it me or is there little no support for this from the Tory bloggers? I would’ve thought they’d be all over it as a chance to show up the government…
Just received a group e-mail from Ming, urging support.
http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/interpreters
Got a print-out ‘Gallery News’ in the post from my MP this AM, just emailed him a correction on the 20,000 figure and my concerns about speedy action.
Also, if anyone’s interested: Petition against the deportation of Mansoor Hassan, a journalist.
I’ll add that a bog-standard media handling tactic for a case like this would be to grant asylum to a small, selected number of people (basically anyone who has already caught the media’s attention and anyone who might do so, eg if they worked with someone like Andrew Alderson) and leave the others to the death squads. For this reason, and others, the number of letters to MPs needs to increase: every letter so far has resulted in a referral to the Home Office. The more such referrals, the less likely they are to try to keep people out.
Also, if I can just quote myself on a matter that seems to trouble (quite rightly) a lot of your commenters: ‘
I’ll add that a bog-standard media handling tactic for a case like this would be to grant asylum to a small, selected number of people (basically anyone who has already caught the media’s attention and anyone who might do so, eg if they worked with someone like Andrew Alderson) and leave the others to the death squads. For this reason, and others, the number of letters to MPs needs to increase: every letter so far has resulted in a referral to the Home Office. The more such referrals, the less likely they are to try to keep people out.
I can’t believe it, but I was on the BBC World Service’s “World Have Your Say” (6pm) yesterday talking about this. They actually had one of the interpreters on to explain the situation.
Nice one Max, any audio uploads I can link to?
Here you are sunny, this is the link from last wednesday.
http://tinyurl.com/gxtnq