At least a third of statistics are made up

Just a quick one. I’ll add links later – I have real work to do.
This morning’s Metro carries a huge “every-one-on-the-train-can- read-it” headline proclaiming

‘Labour loses a third of voters”

Not based on a real election obviously (which does beg a major issue) but on last night’s Harris poll which shows Labour on 29%. (Note that the more interesting aspect of this poll is that it shows all three major parties losing support).

Thing is though, Labour’s share of the popular vote at the General Election was 35.3%

The poll asks people whether they’re likely to vote for the same party as they did last time, and uses the figure for who people in the poll said they voted for, rather than the 2005 General Election stats. This however gives a barely altered figure of 36%.

So if Labour had “lost” a third of its votes (and remember it’s a poll not an election) it’s standing would be 24% according to the Harris Poll, or 23.5% if we went with the actual voting figures.

It’s not though – the figure they give for the poll is 29% for Labour – or a loss of around 18% – between a 6th and a 5th of voters – in other words a little over half the fraction that the Metro is claiming they have lost.

Other recent polls have shown Labour support as high as 35% – barely a loss of votes at all; and averages of polls show Labour’s current showing at 32%

Which would show that Labour have “lost” around 9% of their vote.

I concede that this is hardly a ringing endorsement.

But they have NOT lost a third of their vote.

To suggest this is complete and utter fabrication. The Metro should be ashamed of this blatant falsehood

Misleading Headline ?

I saw this in this morning’s Metro : Soldiers kicked out of a pub for wearing their uniforms

Not very fair one would think. Why should soldiers be discriminated against ? Especially these ones – who’ve lost 9 colleagues in Afghanistan.

Except there’s a hidden twist. In the same article the management of the pub reveal that yes it is their policy not to serve service personnel in uniform – and why ? – because that’s what they’ve been asked to do by the authorities from nearby military bases.

As “RAF Brize Norton spokeswoman Katie Zasada said: ‘Any personnel in the Navy, Army or RAF are not allowed to enter any pub in uniform, unless it is for a wedding or funeral”.

In other words these soldiers were breaking standing orders by entering the pub in uniform.

Sort of changes the story doesn’t it ?

I can’t help but think that the Army and Air Force have a tough enough time without newspapers sniffing round trying to find non-existent stories about them.

I’m just glad the non-story they came up with didn’t accuse them of waterboarding the landlord to persuade him to give them a Tikka Masala and a Scampi & Chips.