Immigration Appeals Via the Guardian

I just read a news article about a leading child psychiatrist who is considering emigrating to Australia because his widowed mother is being denied a visa to remain in the UK. Every week, there is at least one such story in the Guardian about baffling decisions by the Home Office. I wouldn't be surrised if there is a dedicated Home Office employee who tracks the Guardian and flags stories that require action to save face. The stories often result in a review of the original decision, which is why it seems to be an effective route to appeal against Home Office decisions. The danger, of course, is it separates the exemplary immigrants from the ordinary immigrants. To get the Guardian to write about you, either you need to have exemplary qualifications(read Oxbridge orequivalent), or have a proven record of service to the UK. Like putting your life at risk by being an interpreter for UK troops in Afghanistan, or being promised by prosecutors that you can remain if you testify for them in a case, only for them to renege later. Having being a newsman myself, I know that more prosaic rejections to more ordinary applicants are unlikely to make the cut. It just shows you that there are so many levels even among the ranks of the disadvantaged. I suppose I fall somewhere in the middle in this hierarchy of the dispossessed. I am university-educated but not at a Russel Group university and neither do I have young children or old parents who depend on me for their leave to remain in the UK.