An appeal from Hope not Hate by Nick Lowles

Last week the Government deployed two advans in London telling ‘illegal immigrants’ to hand themselves in voluntarily or face arrest and deportation. This follows on from a Home Office tweet, earlier this month, warning “There will be no hiding places for illegal immigrants with the new #ImmigrationBill”, accompanied by a picture of a handcuffed man of Asian appearance being placed into a van. Of course these advans and tweet had little to do with reducing immigration but was the Government trying to head off a surge in support for UKIP. Politics is about to get very dirty. The rise of UKIP has spooked the main political parties and they are all ratcheting up their rhetoric on immigration as a consequence. By all means have a proper debate about immigration but lurid headlines and cheap political soundbites only add to the problem. In the immediate aftermath of Woolwich we applauded the resilience of British people for refusing to allow extremists to win. But now our unity is being tested and it is time for us to take a stand. Today we are launching an appeal for £5,000 to ensure a voice of HOPE is heard. The £5,000 will pay for: A national We Are The Many leaflet 15 local leaflets for our key target areas A social media campaign to bring together Muslims and non-Muslims Can you chip in a few quid to help us? https://donate.hopenothate.org.uk/a-taste-of-things-to-come The inexcusable killing of Lee Rigby has been followed by a wave of attacks on Britain’s Muslim communities. Only last week a man was charged with murdering an elderly Muslim man in Birmingham and planting three bombs outside mosques. Virtually every day we have scaremongering anti-immigration headlines in the national newspapers. And now we have the advan gimmick. Help us spread the We Are The Many message https://donate.hopenothate.org.uk/a-taste-of-things-to-come A few weeks ago we stood together and said We Are The Many. Now we need to get that message out into local communities and ensure we continue to stand united against extremism, hatred and racism. And by doing this loudly and confidently we can tell our politicians – of all parties – that there will be consequences if they play fast and loose over race and immigration. Because if we don’t then this ad campaign is a taste of things to come.