Attracting the media to our campaign...

Does anyone have any ideas as to what we should be doing to get the attention of the media?

Publicity stunt...

I have emailed Radio 4's Woman's Hour as this is potentially a great mix of politics and human interest for them, and a nice 'middle class' programme like that will perhaps give us a sympathetic hearing. Anyone else who wants to ask them to cover this can contact them here (and you don't have to be a woman):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/contact-forms/womans-hour/

Anybody willing to write a blog post for the Guardian's comment is free can pitch it here:

: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/04/you-tell-us

I'm going to do this when I get some time but if you can write you should do it too, to get the conversation started (never, ever read the comments on your story though, this page is full of Daily Mail readers)

I strongly advise everyone here to write out 'their story' and send it to their MP (most will not be aware of how the changes affect their constituents), the Family Immigration Alliance: http://familyimmigrationalliance.wordpress.com/contact/ and the testimonials page on this site, and anywhere and everywhere else. As someone on another site has said, the human element of our story is what is going to win us sympathy among the public who increasingly see immigrants as just a bunch of shadowy faceless benefit scroungers. It's up to us to challenge this view and show that we are families being torn apart, that we are people and that we deserve to be treated better. The more stories we can get together the better our position.

If you are in a trade union talk to your rep about this, their power is dwindling but they still have some clout and their power is in numbers. Your rep will be able to tell you where they can take it. Remember that there is a lot of action planned this autumn - including a march against cuts/austerity/the coalition in central London in #October. I don't think it would do our cause any harm to be represented when this happens, the movement against the government is growing and we have a very good case against their anti-working class policies.

A publicity stunt is a GREAT idea. We need to do something to get the media's attention a la 'father's for justice'. I'm not suggesting climbing Big Ben but I'd definitely be at the bottom cheering anyone up there on!

If we march/protest/join the October march why don't we all dress in wedding attire and carry broken (cardboard) hearts. I am thinking that this would be very photographable, make us stand out and really get our point across.

Thanks for that suggestion. I'd been wondering whether they'd done an article about it but although I work from home I don't listen to it every day. I was going to call and ask.

I will certainly contact them as you suggested.

It seems crazy that Theresa May is, apart from being Home Secretary, Minister for Equality and Women and yet champions a policy that affects more women than men (61% I believe as opposed to 48% men) in denying them the ability to bring a partner to the UK because of failing to meet the earnings threshold.

Alan

Thank you for the suggestion, I have just sent them my family's story and asked if they could help in any way.

I am so desperate for my family to be together, as Chris knows I will contact who ever we can think of so please any suggestions keep them coming.

I am a big advocate of the more people we tell our stories to the better chance of something happening we have.

Everyone please write out our story and how these rules are affecting you, your children, your family and send it daily to who ever you can.

Chris you named this web site accordingly as we will definately have to fight to keep our families together and fight for our love, sad but very true

Hi Chris, I just want to thank you for all your hard work. Without you and the suggestions you have had I wouldn't have got my family's story out as I have done.

Me & my husband have sent emails (multiple) to all the MP's you have noted on the MRN website and on here, I have sent emails to BBC, Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, the Human Rights Commission of Europe and Britian and many many more that you have provided the links to.

With me being in Canada and my husband stuck working 60+ hours a week only to be no where near the income threshold to satisfy May and her gang, we cannot do much more than that right now.

After reading what is happening on the MRN today with all the people blogging and comments I worry that people are not willing to do the work needed to follow your lead to success. If I were there I would be planning protests similar to the one the students put together so quickly and they got world wide press..... all in one day of the announcement being made. We were told our bad news months ago and people haven't been able to ban together to protest or make our stories be heard.

Bravo to you for all your efforts, I will continue to read your posts and see any new links and suggestions of where to go next with our story. If a protest does get formed my husband will attend. I know the MRN is planning something in October so hopefully we can get some good press there. Keep strong and good luck to you

Me too, I want to thank you Christopher. In the last couple of weeks you have done more than maybe some of us have done in a couple of years, you created this forum, place where we can share our ideas and support each other ...you united us and I will follow you and use all your suggestions, because I believe if we will stay together and will fight for our right to have a normal life, we can unite our families.

Thank you all very much for your kind words, it empowers me to take this campaign to new levels, this week will be a very interesting week for us, as I will be contacting various organisation up and down the country as I want to "unite" us all.
I do apologise I have not sent many messages over the last few days, I'm been planning how to improve our campaign.

I have these ideas:

Make a youtube video, about 3/5mins long, with information and basic images. I will give you all a detailed idea of what I want to do, the problem is, I've never made a youtube video, is it hard?

How do you all feel about designing a poster and secretly putting it in a public place, hehehe, in the public eye, we are from different locations (advantage)