Tag Archives: Media Mistakes

The Evening Standard is Lying to London

Last Wednesday, activists from the Squash campaign inserted 8000 leaflets into the Evening Standard, in an attempt to redress the deliberate misinformation being pumped out by this media mischief-maker.

Now we’re urging you to do the same.

Richard Madeley Reaction # 2

In his failure to look beyond the uninformed words of the association mouth-piece, Madeley replicated the mistakes which led to this damning law coming about.
“The current law is sufficient to protect homeowners, but is not understood by the public, the police, nor, it seems, politicians” stated the Law Society in consultation.

We take a closer look at what Richard got wrong…

Richard Madeley Reaction #1

Pete the Temp takes us through the experience of sharing his space with Serious Journalist Richard Madeley.

SQUASH NewsRound: Mid-October 2012

The News Round comes out every fortnight, keeping tabs on articles being posted in Main Stream Media (MSM) sources and independent channels about squatting, the new law (s.144) and possible new legislative attacks.For the Period: 12 October -10 November 2012. Contains stories on the following: discussion in the MSM about extending criminalisation to commercial property, the squatted, the emerging housing crisis in B&B accommodation, rising rents and falling benefits, and the poor state of accommodation in the private rented sector, and communal living as housing solution.

Dear Telegraph…

**The following post is by Rueben Taylor, a campaigner with SQUASH.** As we all know and we’ve been exploring a little on this blog, many newspapers are riddled with inaccuracies and distortions about squatting. The Telegraph has been particularly manipulative in this regard, spewing a concerted campaign of mistruths as part of their plan to Stop the Squatters – to ensure empty buildings remain empty and the poor remain on the streets. Spearheading much of their coverage has been scaremonger-in-chief Tom Whitehead, the Home Affairs editor. Unfortunately, Tom does have rather a tendency to make mistakes or to misinterpret the […]

Squatter hate Mail’s real agenda

**The following post is by Liz Davies, chairwoman of the [Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers](http://www.haldane.org/), writing here in a personal capacity. It was originally published in the [Morning Star](http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/layout/set/print/content/view/full/104801), and is reposted with kind permission of the author.** The Daily Mail and Tory MPs are obsessed with squatting. Every two months the Mail bangs home the message that squatting is “legal” in Britain. What it actually means is that squatting is not criminal. Trespassing on someone’s property has always been a tort or civil wrong. But the Mail is right. “Trespassers will be prosecuted” – ie will face a criminal […]

Housing Trust Praised for “Doing the Dirty Work” – forcing people onto the street and destroying their homes

**The following post is from Jenny Matthews, who is involved with the SQUASH campaign. Here she looks at another example of media myths and distortions about squatting.**     Housing Trust Praised for “Doing the Dirty Work” tackling A406 squatting problem Here’s a nasty little piece which was brought to our attention from the Enfield Independent: a particularly flagrant example of lazy journalism and the persecution of unauthorised occupants. Astounding in its lauding of deeply inhumane acts being perpetrated against the homeless by an organisation which supposedly aims to “help peple achieve more for themselves …[and] house people in need”, […]

On the Naughty Step: The Telegraph Gets it Wrong (again)

**On the SQUASH blog we will regularly post pieces which highlight the innacuracies and distortions of media pieces about squatting. The following post is reprinted with kind permission from [Nearly Legal](http://nearlylegal.co.uk/blog/2011/03/on-the-naughty-step-bait-and-switch/), the housing law news and comment blog.** I don’t read the Daily Telegraph. Frankly I’ve failed to see the point since it stopped featuring details of the salacious trial of the day as a regular fixture on page 3, because the rest of it was preposterous blimpish nonsense, mainly full of regret that Britain ever came off the gold standard. I was dimly aware that it had a re-design […]