A common thread ran through Twitter after the last leaders debate. “Were the pollsters watching the same debate as us?”
This was the case not only in the “Twitter-sphere,” but the right wing Andrew Neil pop-politics show panel named the debate as being Browns.
Channel 4’s live poll, like quite a few of these live polls, named Cameron as a poor third or at least, neck and neck with Brown or Clegg as second place.
Even Murdoch's Sky, in a poll it has no members on the board – ie. a radio listeners poll, put Brown in first place.
So what is going on?
The biggest and most quoted pollsters in the media at the moment are You Gov. YouGov, like all polsters, tell us they are “neutral.”
Let's see. The CEO of YouGov PLC, Stephan Shakespeare, is a business associate, close personal friend and former campaign manager of Jeffrey Archer, the disgraced Tory Lord. He owns the ConservativeHome website, was Jeffrey Archer's spokesman during his London mayoral bid and was the Conservative candidate for Colchester during the 1997 election. Archer, by the way, was on telly last night for the first time in years - STRAIGHT AFTER THE DEBATE ON NEIL'S BBC PROGRAMME "THIS WEEK", calling his man the winner because of the "polls." Ahem.
An “ex” YouGov CEO Nadhim Zahawi is standing as a Conservative MP for Stratford Upon Avon in the 2010 General Election. Nadhim Zahawi also worked on Lord Archer's mayoral bid. Nadhim has stated he is not CEO anymore however he is still an active board member
see
HERE
HERE
and HERE
After Craig Murray published evidence that YouGov’s polls were rigged, they (or more specifically, Sheakspeare) denied it -But where did they publish their denial? ConservativeHome!
I am at present trying to get info on ComRes, the polsters that seem to be the second most quoted.
The Daily Mail were caught out rigging their polls and had to change the result after 1o,000 people read the analysis of how they were doing it
As has been pointed out on the Campsie website before, Murdoch and the Daily Mail have made a deal to back each others editorial in order to get the Tories in AT ALL COSTS. So, not only do the Tories at the moment own the press, they own the “independent pollsters.”
Don’t get me wrong – I cannot defend Labour in this – they quite happily took support from the Murdochracy from 1997 until this election – and their spin has been overtaken by the Tories ability to pay to buy search terms on google (enter “Leaders debate" into your google search engine and notice the advert from the tories at the top of the page).
The New Labour project has failed - and the public's Clegg/Lib Dem love in has shown that (even though the Lib Dem message is full of HUGE holes and spin) the truth starved public want to hear alternatives to the non-answers the politicos throw at us.
But what has become clear in this election – the media needs to be separated from the political parties in the way the BBC are supposed to be (though Nick Robinson, the Tory political editor at the BBC needs a slap) – and this would be a priority of a Scottish Socialist Party politician.
Follow the debate on the pollsters
HERE
Campsie articles relating to this
HERE
HERE
and HERE
Polly Toynbee on Murdoch's scandalous influence on our political system HERE
Showing posts with label murdoch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label murdoch. Show all posts
Friday, 30 April 2010
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Cameron, the rich, on Social Justice
Let’s be clear about something when David Cameron speaks about “broken Britain.” It was the Tories wot dun it.
What Cameron thinks of poor and working class who are being persuaded to vote for him by Sun, Times and Daily Mail - photo by photographer Michael Schofield
When was British society at its most “happiest” using measurable scales?
During the noughties?
No. During the ‘90s? No.
Ok. The ‘50s or 60’s?
Nope.
It surely can’t be the Thatcherite ‘80s?
Got that right.
The year in which various health indicators have shown that the UK was at it’s happiest was 1978. The year BEFORE the Thatcher victory. The year of the so called winter of discontent.
Why?
Because that is the year when the UK had reached its highest level of equality and social mobility.
Of course, this is something the Murdochracy ,the Tories and the New Labour project do not want you to know.
What happened in between then and now?
Well – Thatcher and her Government decimated our society; wrecked our manufacturing base; destroyed mining towns and villages; made no-go areas of our inner cities; created a society where rather than feeling safe and happy, people feel they need to walk on each other – and kick each other down - in order to succeed – or at least to feel they are succeeding.
Surely the Labour Party changed this?
Well, let’s be fair. The Labour Party, according to social and health indicators, did not destroy society on quite the same scale, but the fact is, they did little to address the gap between rich and poor. They continued the Thatcherite/ neo-liberal project that ensures the people on the bottom struggle and work the hardest to feed themselves and their children, but receive the most “jip” – being called lazy or worse, dismissed as some sort of genetic “underclass.” And all the “main” political parties are turning to the poor to pay off the rich bankers debt by cutting their services and their chance of a job.
Back in the early eighties when I started working, the Thatcher project was only beginning to show its teeth. There were still communities of council housing where the unskilled worker lived side by side with policemen, nurses, tradesmen and women, public service workers – REAL communities. People could decide how to spend their money – either on a mortgage or on renting a decent house. And every family who needed a house could get one without a wait or having to scrape deposits or risk 95% / 100% mortgages. The current housing system sees young people unable to get a house either from the council – or onto the “property ladder.”
Those of us who “failed” in school (failure being part of the educational language at the time – some good things have happened educationally in the meantime…) could find unskilled – well paid – jobs in factories. Education was not quite the market it has become where people with qualifications within a percentage point of each other compete for precious college or University places.
Nowadays “failure” is on the part of society – the UK Thatcherite/ neoliberal economy has meant our young people are failing to find jobs because, let’s face it, there are few of them. And there will be fewer as the Public Sector are made to pay in jobs and funding for the failure of the much vaunted private sector (the private sector – let’s face it – who caused the “crisis”).
What is a fair society? Is it this scrabble for the pieces the rich throw down from their table? 2% of the people in country benefit from the current system – the very rich – the Cameron’s, Murdoch’s and Rothermere’s who are telling the rest of us we must cut cut cut and live in austerity. When, apparently, times were good – before the “economic downturn” (or the rich rip-off to term it properly) we were told we needed cuts in our pensions/ public services/ pay. Now times are bad, we, the majority of this country are told we need to cut back even more. So when were these good times? For the majority of the country, it seems that the “good times” were just times when the rich were getting even more rich than they are now while shafting the rest of us(the rich in this country made over £300bn extra bucks in the last year, while the rest of us are asked to suffer for their greed).
Why do we not hear any of this in our press?
Well, our press is controlled by the very rich.
Lord Rothermere, whose Daily Mail daily attacks the poor and working class, and who supports the Tory “austerity” drive, ie. the drive to impoverish the poor even further in order to make them pay for the rich’s greed, pays NO TAX in this country.
Why? Because he makes his money here, but is “non-domiciled.” The man is worth nearly a reported billion pounds… yet pays nothing to our society only bile through his working class bashing rag.
Rupert Murdoch not only avoids tax in the UK on his incredible fortune, but has been cited in various tax avoidance cases in the US and Israel to name two. Murdoch is reportedly worth £7bn – but pays no tax here – in the country his Sun and Times target the poor for cuts – and the “austerity” Tories as their party of choice – the party that ruined towns and villages across the country in their “greed is good” philosophy.
As I have said in another article ( HERE ), Twitter and other outlets for real people’s opinion have turned the tables. But not completely.
The Tories and Labour – and the SNP in Scotland - all want one party rule – their party. So they, in their various ways, ensure the smaller parties – or the left - or the sensible – or those purely wanting fairness - have little exposure in societal debates and discussion. This not only happens through the billionaire supported and opinionated press ignoring the Lib Dems or the Scottish Socialist Party, but also in ignoring poverty charities such as Child Poverty Action Group, or damning reports about equality such as the Black Report or more recent work by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett ( see HERE and on the election HERE) and perhaps seemingly less important, the legislation against placarding streets during elections.
Look out for legislation against certain types of blogging or twittering or opinion pieces in the future as the greed driven Thatcherite poverty bashing parties and billionaires all panic.
And as far as Cameron’s “social justice" message this morning, in the words of the young woman who heckled him yesterday, “I don’t believe you.”
follow @sspcampsie on twitter
What Cameron thinks of poor and working class who are being persuaded to vote for him by Sun, Times and Daily Mail - photo by photographer Michael Schofield
When was British society at its most “happiest” using measurable scales?
During the noughties?
No. During the ‘90s? No.
Ok. The ‘50s or 60’s?
Nope.
It surely can’t be the Thatcherite ‘80s?
Got that right.
The year in which various health indicators have shown that the UK was at it’s happiest was 1978. The year BEFORE the Thatcher victory. The year of the so called winter of discontent.
Why?
Because that is the year when the UK had reached its highest level of equality and social mobility.
Of course, this is something the Murdochracy ,the Tories and the New Labour project do not want you to know.
What happened in between then and now?
Well – Thatcher and her Government decimated our society; wrecked our manufacturing base; destroyed mining towns and villages; made no-go areas of our inner cities; created a society where rather than feeling safe and happy, people feel they need to walk on each other – and kick each other down - in order to succeed – or at least to feel they are succeeding.
Surely the Labour Party changed this?
Well, let’s be fair. The Labour Party, according to social and health indicators, did not destroy society on quite the same scale, but the fact is, they did little to address the gap between rich and poor. They continued the Thatcherite/ neo-liberal project that ensures the people on the bottom struggle and work the hardest to feed themselves and their children, but receive the most “jip” – being called lazy or worse, dismissed as some sort of genetic “underclass.” And all the “main” political parties are turning to the poor to pay off the rich bankers debt by cutting their services and their chance of a job.
Back in the early eighties when I started working, the Thatcher project was only beginning to show its teeth. There were still communities of council housing where the unskilled worker lived side by side with policemen, nurses, tradesmen and women, public service workers – REAL communities. People could decide how to spend their money – either on a mortgage or on renting a decent house. And every family who needed a house could get one without a wait or having to scrape deposits or risk 95% / 100% mortgages. The current housing system sees young people unable to get a house either from the council – or onto the “property ladder.”
Those of us who “failed” in school (failure being part of the educational language at the time – some good things have happened educationally in the meantime…) could find unskilled – well paid – jobs in factories. Education was not quite the market it has become where people with qualifications within a percentage point of each other compete for precious college or University places.
Nowadays “failure” is on the part of society – the UK Thatcherite/ neoliberal economy has meant our young people are failing to find jobs because, let’s face it, there are few of them. And there will be fewer as the Public Sector are made to pay in jobs and funding for the failure of the much vaunted private sector (the private sector – let’s face it – who caused the “crisis”).
What is a fair society? Is it this scrabble for the pieces the rich throw down from their table? 2% of the people in country benefit from the current system – the very rich – the Cameron’s, Murdoch’s and Rothermere’s who are telling the rest of us we must cut cut cut and live in austerity. When, apparently, times were good – before the “economic downturn” (or the rich rip-off to term it properly) we were told we needed cuts in our pensions/ public services/ pay. Now times are bad, we, the majority of this country are told we need to cut back even more. So when were these good times? For the majority of the country, it seems that the “good times” were just times when the rich were getting even more rich than they are now while shafting the rest of us(the rich in this country made over £300bn extra bucks in the last year, while the rest of us are asked to suffer for their greed).
Why do we not hear any of this in our press?
Well, our press is controlled by the very rich.
Lord Rothermere, whose Daily Mail daily attacks the poor and working class, and who supports the Tory “austerity” drive, ie. the drive to impoverish the poor even further in order to make them pay for the rich’s greed, pays NO TAX in this country.
Why? Because he makes his money here, but is “non-domiciled.” The man is worth nearly a reported billion pounds… yet pays nothing to our society only bile through his working class bashing rag.
Rupert Murdoch not only avoids tax in the UK on his incredible fortune, but has been cited in various tax avoidance cases in the US and Israel to name two. Murdoch is reportedly worth £7bn – but pays no tax here – in the country his Sun and Times target the poor for cuts – and the “austerity” Tories as their party of choice – the party that ruined towns and villages across the country in their “greed is good” philosophy.
As I have said in another article ( HERE ), Twitter and other outlets for real people’s opinion have turned the tables. But not completely.
The Tories and Labour – and the SNP in Scotland - all want one party rule – their party. So they, in their various ways, ensure the smaller parties – or the left - or the sensible – or those purely wanting fairness - have little exposure in societal debates and discussion. This not only happens through the billionaire supported and opinionated press ignoring the Lib Dems or the Scottish Socialist Party, but also in ignoring poverty charities such as Child Poverty Action Group, or damning reports about equality such as the Black Report or more recent work by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett ( see HERE and on the election HERE) and perhaps seemingly less important, the legislation against placarding streets during elections.
Look out for legislation against certain types of blogging or twittering or opinion pieces in the future as the greed driven Thatcherite poverty bashing parties and billionaires all panic.
And as far as Cameron’s “social justice" message this morning, in the words of the young woman who heckled him yesterday, “I don’t believe you.”
follow @sspcampsie on twitter
Friday, 23 April 2010
Millionaires fooled us by control of Head Fixing Industry
I served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and like many of the returning servicemen, I hoped for a socialist future. The Labour Party sensing the mood of the people, put forward a socialist programme to restore the economy. The major industries, transport, energy and all the main branches of the economy were nationalised. The welfare state of the National Health Service was started. Pre-fabs were introduced to ease the housing shortage. Scarce commodities were shared. We had our ration books, clothing coupons, petrol coupons etc. Nobody, but nobody talked about cuts. With control of industry we could plan out our future and provide better prospects for all.
Unfortunately the Labour Party was never a socialist party, as Tony Benn said, though there were many socialists in it. What started so promising deteriorated as private interests were allowed to regain power. The biggest industry of all, “the head fixing industry”- the media – was left in private hands and the millionaire owners ensured their interests were promoted in the sneaky way that has slowly eroded our democracy and impoverished millions.
I hope it won’t take a major global catastrophe before people realise that socialism is the only possible future for all.
Unfortunately the Labour Party was never a socialist party, as Tony Benn said, though there were many socialists in it. What started so promising deteriorated as private interests were allowed to regain power. The biggest industry of all, “the head fixing industry”- the media – was left in private hands and the millionaire owners ensured their interests were promoted in the sneaky way that has slowly eroded our democracy and impoverished millions.
I hope it won’t take a major global catastrophe before people realise that socialism is the only possible future for all.
It was the Son wot Lost it?
Is the Media Mickey Mouse Degree tide turning?
One thing has been made obvious by the welcome knock-back of the “sure winners” the Tories. The media has been exposed. The journalists who have vested interests in pleasing Murdoch daily with even more rancid headlines have been outed.
I know this is the case for one primary reason. In the way miners used to bring birds down the mines to let them know that gas was present, I talk politics to my parents. This can be painful for a Socialist – my parents are Daily Mail/ Sun reading pensioners who worked hard all of their lives. They come from a generation who grumbled about politicians and in fact had no illusions (they live in Northern Ireland) – but every year were fooled by the scare politics of the unionist hegemony in the province. This year, in Northern Ireland is a little different. Unionism is shattering and a beleaguered UUP is being bolstered by a desperate Tory Party.
But it isn’t Northern Ireland politics that my parents have noticed is rotten – they knew that many years ago. No – it is that their usual Daily Mail and Sun line has slightly changed. They still say unreasonable things straight from the pages- but last night, when I spoke to them on the phone, both said to me, more or less in the same words, “the papers told lies about Nick Clegg.”
Let me expose my partisanship – I am a socialist. I want a fair society. I just don’t want you to get the wrong impression… but…
Last night Ann Leslie appeared on BBC Question Time. This experienced old tory hack was also a miners bird (not literally – she did her very best back during the Thatcher years to destroy that industry and those peoples lives). Leslie started her usual less than subtle Tory diatribes with the sentence, “As someone who votes tory, but is not a member of the tory party – I don’t hold with journalists belonging to political parties…” - an unprecendented admission on a populous political programme. With most of her points there was a knowing audience titter and certainly on Twitter as her name, surprisingly trended, the twitter-atti were certainly not fooled by her.
Murdoch Mess
This morning on asking Gordon Brown a question about honesty, a Sun reporter was openly laughed at by the press and Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman and Mandelson joined in the laughter, Brown saying, “That’s rich from the Sun, the sun should give people more credit,[and be honest] and allow people to make their own minds up.”
Yesterday the Independent Newspaper was confronted by James Murdoch (Rupert’s son who advised his dad to back the Tories) openly at a press do. His objections were because the Independent dared to say, “Rupert Murdoch won’t decide this election, you will,” in a promotional ad. This shows the flakiness and panic setting into the Murdoch empire as they are feeling the pressure of the fact they have pumped millions of pounds behind a Tory campaign that seems to have ran off the rails. If the Tories fail, that would be millions of pounds wasted on both sides of the Atlantic as President Cain and Vice President Palin failed to reap the Fox News dividend. Murdoch had also met with the Daily Mail pre-the attacks on Nick Clegg – exposing that short lived and transparent joint strategy. The Murdoch’s are under pressure because of the seeming imminent failure of their support for the Tories and their want to place online news print media behind a paywall. Is an empire unravelling?
Press owned by self interested billionaires
Johann Hari sums it up in an article today saying, “The British media is overwhelmingly owned by right-wing billionaires who order their newspapers to build up the politicians who serve their interests, and marginalise or rubbish the politicians who serve the public interest. …Only a tiny spectrum of opinion was permitted [by the Murdoch’s according to ex-editor of the Sun, David Yelland]. Everyone to the left of Tony Blair (not hard) had to be rubbished – even when their policies spoke for a majority of British people.” (full article HERE )
Hari believes the TV debates have been one of the biggest factors in the changing of the public’s ability to be fooled. I nearly agree. I would say it ruins slightly deeper. Thatcher’s nightmare has come about. She used to attack Media Studies as a Mickey Mouse course – but those educated into how the media works seem to have spread the word. Not only that, the ability to blog, twitter, youtube etc has brought different views to people – showing there is more of a view than through the Murdoch/ Rothermere looking glass. The internet has shown people they can make a difference in controversial issues (Trafagura/ Iran/ Haiti etc) and also make little changes to what is accepted will happen (Rage Against the Machine as the very festive number one instead of Simon Cowell’s latest singing cash cow). The people have been educated, and perhaps slowly (a move to the Liberal Democrats is hardly revolutionary!) consciousness is creeping into elections – and these are going to be more than an X-Factor glamour contest.
I predict it will be less of a “It was the Sun wot won it,” than the trending Twitter hashtag this morning of “#itwastheSONwotlostit”.
After the upset this election promises, watch out for an even more colourful Scottish Parliament in 2011.
One thing has been made obvious by the welcome knock-back of the “sure winners” the Tories. The media has been exposed. The journalists who have vested interests in pleasing Murdoch daily with even more rancid headlines have been outed.
I know this is the case for one primary reason. In the way miners used to bring birds down the mines to let them know that gas was present, I talk politics to my parents. This can be painful for a Socialist – my parents are Daily Mail/ Sun reading pensioners who worked hard all of their lives. They come from a generation who grumbled about politicians and in fact had no illusions (they live in Northern Ireland) – but every year were fooled by the scare politics of the unionist hegemony in the province. This year, in Northern Ireland is a little different. Unionism is shattering and a beleaguered UUP is being bolstered by a desperate Tory Party.
But it isn’t Northern Ireland politics that my parents have noticed is rotten – they knew that many years ago. No – it is that their usual Daily Mail and Sun line has slightly changed. They still say unreasonable things straight from the pages- but last night, when I spoke to them on the phone, both said to me, more or less in the same words, “the papers told lies about Nick Clegg.”
Let me expose my partisanship – I am a socialist. I want a fair society. I just don’t want you to get the wrong impression… but…
Last night Ann Leslie appeared on BBC Question Time. This experienced old tory hack was also a miners bird (not literally – she did her very best back during the Thatcher years to destroy that industry and those peoples lives). Leslie started her usual less than subtle Tory diatribes with the sentence, “As someone who votes tory, but is not a member of the tory party – I don’t hold with journalists belonging to political parties…” - an unprecendented admission on a populous political programme. With most of her points there was a knowing audience titter and certainly on Twitter as her name, surprisingly trended, the twitter-atti were certainly not fooled by her.
Murdoch Mess
This morning on asking Gordon Brown a question about honesty, a Sun reporter was openly laughed at by the press and Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman and Mandelson joined in the laughter, Brown saying, “That’s rich from the Sun, the sun should give people more credit,[and be honest] and allow people to make their own minds up.”
Yesterday the Independent Newspaper was confronted by James Murdoch (Rupert’s son who advised his dad to back the Tories) openly at a press do. His objections were because the Independent dared to say, “Rupert Murdoch won’t decide this election, you will,” in a promotional ad. This shows the flakiness and panic setting into the Murdoch empire as they are feeling the pressure of the fact they have pumped millions of pounds behind a Tory campaign that seems to have ran off the rails. If the Tories fail, that would be millions of pounds wasted on both sides of the Atlantic as President Cain and Vice President Palin failed to reap the Fox News dividend. Murdoch had also met with the Daily Mail pre-the attacks on Nick Clegg – exposing that short lived and transparent joint strategy. The Murdoch’s are under pressure because of the seeming imminent failure of their support for the Tories and their want to place online news print media behind a paywall. Is an empire unravelling?
Press owned by self interested billionaires
Johann Hari sums it up in an article today saying, “The British media is overwhelmingly owned by right-wing billionaires who order their newspapers to build up the politicians who serve their interests, and marginalise or rubbish the politicians who serve the public interest. …Only a tiny spectrum of opinion was permitted [by the Murdoch’s according to ex-editor of the Sun, David Yelland]. Everyone to the left of Tony Blair (not hard) had to be rubbished – even when their policies spoke for a majority of British people.” (full article HERE )
Hari believes the TV debates have been one of the biggest factors in the changing of the public’s ability to be fooled. I nearly agree. I would say it ruins slightly deeper. Thatcher’s nightmare has come about. She used to attack Media Studies as a Mickey Mouse course – but those educated into how the media works seem to have spread the word. Not only that, the ability to blog, twitter, youtube etc has brought different views to people – showing there is more of a view than through the Murdoch/ Rothermere looking glass. The internet has shown people they can make a difference in controversial issues (Trafagura/ Iran/ Haiti etc) and also make little changes to what is accepted will happen (Rage Against the Machine as the very festive number one instead of Simon Cowell’s latest singing cash cow). The people have been educated, and perhaps slowly (a move to the Liberal Democrats is hardly revolutionary!) consciousness is creeping into elections – and these are going to be more than an X-Factor glamour contest.
I predict it will be less of a “It was the Sun wot won it,” than the trending Twitter hashtag this morning of “#itwastheSONwotlostit”.
After the upset this election promises, watch out for an even more colourful Scottish Parliament in 2011.
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