We all know Tricky Dicky Desmond's opinions on the various people of the world: he hates them all - and reserves particular hatred for Germans, gypsies, immigrants and asylum seekers. Desmond's partisan pecadilloes, of course, filter through to his stable of papers, and the Express, Sunday Express and Star - but how far does it extend?
In the best investigative reporting tradition (i.e. sitting in a comfortable chair and not leaving the room), Hacked Off is proud to present the findings of its completely unscientific study of into Lunacy at Ludgate House.
In the past year, the phrase "asylum seeker" has appeared in either the Express, Sunday Express or Star a staggering 1013 times, that's nearly three times a day. Compared to other right-wing tabs, the Express Group looks like its waving the flag for the BNP - the Sun and News of the World rack up 643 examples, and the poison pen of the Mail can only manage 540 appearances. The Mirror stable (including the People) manages it a measly 473 times.
It has, however, been dropping off in recent months. Taken over a six-month period, instances have fallen by around a third.
Here are some other records for you from Dirty Des's rollcall of shame...
immigrant: 893
gypsy: 117
romanian: 345
and, as a control experiment -
gypo: 2 (and those are quotes from Newcastle United's cultural ambassador, Craig Bellamy)
What does this prove? Not much, but it doesn't seem very nice, now, does it?
(Notes, before people start emailing en masse: There was no attempt to put these uses into context, I'm far too lazy for that. The broadsheets also manage their fair share of "asylum seekers", including a massive 800+ appearances in the Guardian and Observer - but put in context it seems unlikely that the Guardian's lilywhite liberals could ever bring themselves to use the term in anger. And even when the tits-dominated Star is taken out of the equation in Northern & Shell's figures, the Express still outruns its nearest tabloid competitors by almost 100)