Can Benefits Claimants Sue the Daily Express?

I was idly thinking, as I spotted The Daily Express' latest headline "4M SCROUNGING FAMILIES IN BRITAIN" whether there is a possibility of some sort of collective legal action by recipients of benefits in the UK.

Of course, some might think it flattering to be described as 4 metres tall, but putting aside lazy typography there must be some harm befalling these people because of the misrepresentation of their circumstances. Can the Express continue to lie with impunity? I'm not quite sure how it can. You can't call millions of people scoungers and expect there to be no harm caused to them.

Especially since, as usual, their figures are more than selective. It turns out that to qualify as a scrounging household you need only 1 adult of working age. They then admit that 7.25million people are living in these workless households. Wow. Small families. The average family has 1.8 children these days. 75% of households still have two parents. So that's a an average family size of 3.3 people, whereas these "workless families" are only 1.8 people strong. And there are only 1.85 million children in this equation. Who are these families? What are the definitions? Are we excluded pensioners, or is claiming your pension now considered to be scrounging? Are these older workers, whose children have long since left and might be finding it hard to keep up with the ever changing labour market (not that the Express would give a shit, clearly)? All of which is entirely unclear from a Daily Express article that finally admits, despite its screaming headline, that there are 38,000 fewer workless households this year than last, despite rising unemployment. And this is a headline? Did they just forget to mention it last year?

This is not news. It is campaigning. The Express is aligning itself with the Tax Payers' Alliance to support benefit cuts, and ultimately tax cuts. There clearly *is* a problem with worklessness in this country, but it is not one that will be addressed by the kind of economic policies proposed by the TPA. And it certainly won't be fixed by demonising the workless and exaggerating public perception of how many there are, but that is the very mission on which they have embarked. "Confusing and over-generous benefits are trapping people in worklessness" says the TPA. No mention of any other possible factors, but that would confuse there nice simple world view. How about a lack of jobs? Cut benefits, starve the economy of money, reduce jobs, fix worklessness? Is that how the TPA rolls? Good to know they can find novel ways out of the liquidity trap.

But seriously, if I allege on the front page of the Express that Jerry Kitchener of Rotherhithe is a scrounger, I imagine Mr Kitchener might be entitled to some sort of recompense. So why - if I smear 3.88 million households (probably including pensioners, single parents and those too ill to work)- can I keep doing it?

Sometimes I wish I knew more about the law. But at least I feel I'm on safe ground announcing that The Daily Express is poorly written and following a suspect political agenda. The joy of common knowledge.