The Daily Mail is angry about what it views as “record” official migrant numbers. Unsurprising, really, and even less so considering this is actually a wildly inaccurate interpretation and immigration in the UK has not seen a sharp rise.
What is slightly more curious is that the Mail has splashed on this story alongside a picture of the Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs, who has died. Sachs himself was a migrant, who fled to Britain from Nazi Germany. He is also best known for playing one of Britain’s most-loved migrants, Manuel, the Spanish waiter. Readers have pointed out the poor taste of running this tribute beside a classic Mail scare story about migration figures.
Here’s a picture of the great pulped tree of hypocrisy:
I won’t be the first today to point out that Andrew Sachs was a migrant, having fled Nazi Germany. pic.twitter.com/vyF17f0R1m
New year, new read. Save 40% off an annual subscription this January.— Richard Littler (@richard_littler) December 2, 2016
Sachs, whose father was a Jewish insurance broker, was born in Berlin in 1930. Eight years later, he and his family fled Germany for London, where they settled and found safety. A Jewish organisation called Jewish Voice has criticised the paper for running a story complaining about more migrants from Europe “than ever before” beside a Sachs tribute: “Andrew Sachs came from a German-Jewish Migrant family. How bad taste for the Daily Hate to have that title next to him.”
But the more your mole thinks about this front page, the more it makes sense. Manuel, a European migrant who is subjected to daily verbal and physical abuse, whose accent and level of English is perpetually mocked, and who is restricted to the low-paid service sector? Of course the Mail is paying tribute.
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