Ironically published on International Migrants Day (18th December), The Sun openly shouted about its stance on the topic.
In his Postcolonial Theory, one of Paul Gilroy’s main ideas was the fact that after the disaster of World War Two, black immigrants are seen as an alien ‘other’ to an imagined white Britishness. Having the semantic code ‘Draw a red line’ (which is often used to mean a figurative point of no return) in the title pushes across an ideology that immigration into Britain can no longer continue.
The phrase ‘or else’ which follows just after suggests that if it continues then there will be issues that can’t be resolved - either through the consequences of having immigrants in Britain or even through the possibility of British people protesting against them. The implications of having “The Sun says” are that the newspaper appears to act as the advocate for all British people. As a result, the audience will potentially align their own ideology to match what the paper puts across as common sense - hegemony in action.
Having the image of Britain and Europe being physically separated by a red line creates a greater sense of “otherness” and reinforces xenophobic ideologies. It could also link to the political context of the time when Britain was going through the controversial debates on Brexit.
It is also interesting to see the fact that the issues are likened to a ‘flood’ as it hints to the idea that immigrants are almost unstoppable and that we may soon be drowning in them as they pour into our country. This connects to Gilroy’s point that black immigrants are perceived to be ‘swamping’ white communities.
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