To think there should be more media coverage of nearly 100,000 people marching through London?

[AliceAnneB]

I can't seem to even find it on the BBC. We were at the demonstration and I think there were possibly more people than that yet it's just not being covered.

Ghostof The truth is that people don't care - they don't want more people in this country that we have to pay for and want to keep the money for themselves.
The fact a very small minority wander round London every now and then does not make a difference.

The thing is , people are always marching for some thing or another. It's not newsworthy. I'm sorry, but that's the cold fact, there's always something going on with placards.

Most people in this country have sympathy with the refugees, but the government have committed to helping them, and the public are satisfied with that, they don't see a need to demonstrate.

'The public'??? What, every man, woman and child in the UK is happy with that? Where are they, because I don't know anyone who's happy with what our government have said they'll do.

Ok.

The state wants apathy it does not like people protesting, challenging the cosy status quo so it is brushed under the carpet.

river a very small group were unhappy. 500,000 marched against the fox hunting ban and were ignored.
This shows 2 things:

1. 5 times as many people cared about fox-hunting bans than the refugees
2. The govt do not give a toss about the opinions of such a small amount of the country.

It was covered in the US. I saw it on NBC Nightly News, which is very mainstream.

well that's the bbc for you.

It's not equivalent Carol to say 30,000 went to a museum or to a sporting event or otherwise amused themselves. To say that 100k in London alone took part in an internationally coordinated movement to stand up for those who have no voice is certainly extrorindary and worthy of coverage. And more coverage would encourage others. The apathy from the BBC is appalling. The refugee crisis is one of the worst humanitarian crisis since world war 2. Have we all swallowed the soma to the point of numb?

I think that sadly, the general public beyond Mumsnet subscribers and Mirror readers, are uninterested. Many think that protesting is a rather pointless and inconveniencing thing done by naive students and middle-aged people who still wear dreadlocks. It's a real shame.

Having lived in London, if every march were covered we'd all be very bored. There's always something.

Well having not watched any news at all since Friday morning I haven't the foggiest what this demo was for. The government have already said we are taking some of the refugees so what exactly were you marching for?

As PP have said we get marches and demos through the centre of London all the bloody time. Its only if they are particularly big (like the fox hunting) or particularly violent (the student demos amongst others) that they really make any dent in the news coverage at local level let alone national.

Funny that you are moaning at the lack of coverage but I've not seen any threads or even a mention on this one that Germany have reinstated border control for the first time in decades as they can't cope with the amount of people pitching up. Austria are closing their border to Hungary too. I believe that France are possibly going to do something on the Italian border and Denmark with Germany. Anyone travelling without the right papers will be stopped and not allowed to cross.

As others have said there are marches all the time in London. News time is limited and any channel has to make a pretty brutal selection leaving almost everything out. People choose their news anyway and if it is not something that interests people they will turn over.

I suspect that if the BBC web pages were crashing under the weight of people reading about the issue they would then show it on the tv.

Well it was bloody obvious that the borders would go back up !!

BMW6 - Absolutely. It is quite impossible.

Add message | Report | Message poster GhostofFrankGrimes Sun 13-Sep-15 14:16:12
Caroldecker - 10,000 people went to a football match yesterday and it was mentioned by the BBC. The last time I watched BBC Breakfast News its lead story was about Harrison Ford breaking his leg. Yes, thats right the most important news item in the world that day was "man breaks leg". hmm

Are you deliberately being stupid? Do you really think that something being the bbcs lead story makes it the most important? Or do you think that maybe an actor that has been in some of the biggest and most loved film franchises crash landing a plane is something people are interested in hearing about.
Do you think that the football match was mentioned because 10,000 people went?
I don't even know how to begin explaining news cycles to you.

Patrician those marching felt that Cameron's response to this crisis is feeble beyond words. 20,000 over 5 years is pathetic. And I have lived all my life in London and marches if this scale, particularly those coordinated internationally, are not the norm.

Well I've lived in London or the South East all my life, and it seems to me, that marches happen with regularity.

climate change guys march every 6 months, million women, guy pride, stop the war etc.

Bedroom tax, tuition fees, constant anti austerity protests, fox hunting. You can join in a march at least once a month in London if you felt so inclined.

thanks River for the explanation.

I see Hungary has closed its borders and already started to turn people away and have made some arrests. Slovakia has also closed its borders. Netherlands and Belgium are considering stepping up border controls too.