There is more love than hate

TWO miles from the ACC conference centre on the Liverpool Docks where the Labour faithful are gathered this week is a Victorian presbytery which is a hub for the local refugee community.

- BY ROS WYNNE-JONES

On August 5 last year, Asylum Link Merseyside, in Toxteth, boarded its windows after becoming the focus of Far Right protests during riots that set city centres alight.

The refugees and people seeking asylum and sanctuary at the centre had nothing to do with the horrific murder of three little girls 20 miles north in Southport, but they became the focus of public anger all the same.

"People we know were spat at, called horrible names," says Emma Leaper, National Coordinator at the charity. "Somebody from our community was attacked."

But even as staff were boarding up the windows, locking the doors and trying to secure records inside the building, they looked out and saw something incredible - thousands of people converging on the building, not with flaming torches or hate-filled chants, but with placards declaring love and support.

"Thousands of people came together to protect the building the night that the fascists were going to attack us," Emma says.