Politics, The Election May 2015

[Bruce Rioja]

the BBC did not pick the audience.

Is it not possible that the Beeb brought a company in whose politics nearest match its own?

[thebish]

the BBC did not pick the audience.

Is it not possible that the Beeb brought a company in whose politics nearest match its own?

we know what company they used - ICM

I'm not aware of any allegations that ICM are a lefty organisation or have any identifiable political bias - report back if you find differently! Also - all the parties had agreed in advance with the broadcasters how the audiences would be selected.

also - Bijou - they may have been given a remit - but the idea that the remit was "find us an audience that will give farage a good kicking" is (to my naive ears) a little bit far-fetched!

[Bijou Bob]

the BBC did not pick the audience.

Is it not possible that the Beeb brought a company in whose politics nearest match its own?

we know what company they used - ICM

I'm not aware of any allegations that ICM are a lefty organisation or have any identifiable political bias - report back if you find differently! Also - all the parties had agreed in advance with the broadcasters how the audiences would be selected.

also - Bijou - they may have been given a remit - but the idea that the remit was "find us an audience that will give farage a good kicking" is (to my naive ears) a little bit far-fetched!

Granted, but they certainly did that with Gorgeous George and with Nick Griffin before him. Although to be fair, Griffin is a cock of the first order who deserved it.

[thebish]

as is Gorgeous George, surely???

(though - I don't think the BBC would need any effort or rigging to assemble an audience that would boo and jeer either of those two.... they do a good enough job themselves...)

[Hoboh]

My version of 'balanced' would probably differ from yours, hence my comment that the Beeb couldn't possibly win. On the face of it, I do feel the Beeb set Nigel up for a kicking, as it did recently with George Galloway on Question Time, stacking the audience with a very large number of people from the Jewish faith. The bottom line is that it's not about fairness to the corporation, it's about what makes good telly.

Once again, the Beeb did not select the audience.

I'd still be interested to know what you think the makeup of a balanced audience would look like - cos there are lots of very different ways of understanding that...

here's just a few (off the top of my head):

an audience that reflects the political makeup of the UK in proportion to the support each party currently has in opinion polls
(only those parties present)
an audience that reflects the political makeup of the UK in proportion to the support each party currently has in opinion polls
(including parties not present)
an audience that reflects the political makeup of the UK in proportion to the number of uk parliamentary seats the parties now have
an audience that reflects the political makeup of the UK in proportion to the last national election that we had (in this case - Europe? Local elections?)
an equal number of audience members supporting each party represented plus some not-decideds
an equal number of audience members for all parties (inc. those not there) plus some not-decideds
some AGREED definition of "centre" - then an equal number of "centre", "left" and "right" and some undecideds
a proportional number of "centre", "left" and "right" depending on number of MPs/opinion polls etc...

there are probably many more!

as you say - impossible to please everyone - but you do have to pick one... and Farage was plainly wrong to claim that the BBC manipulated the audience to follow its leftish agenda. the BBC did not pick the audience.

He who pays the piper!
And of course you were privy to the discussions between the BBC and the polling company and know exactly what criteria was set up?
It is a good job that some people on here are not involved in a trial of UKIP because they wouldn't stand a cat in hells chance of a fair hearing!
As if any right minded Englishman would take anyone serious who whooped and applauded the leader of a breakaway at any cost nationalist leader, one I might hasten to add, whom although very muted, has a similar view to immigration as UKIP!

[Hoboh]

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... al-studies" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Worthy4England]

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... al-studies" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Didn't we say similar on here, prior to the vote in Scotland?

Bit like we keep pointing out that UKIP haven't told us what it would cost to leave Europe....

[bobo the clown]

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... al-studies" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Nicola Sturgeon has dismissed a previous IFS projection as irrelevant".

... & she's right. England will pick up that bill .... plus the stunt she pulled in August, that Greek-like threat to not take up their share of the debt


By the way .... when did the Institute of Financial Studies become the BBC's go-to people for all financial matters ? A little like they used to dash off to FoE or GreenPeace on any environmental bollox. I don't know that there's anything wrong with them but it's lazy journalism to have them as the bellwether for absolutely everything.

[Hoboh]

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... al-studies" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Didn't we say similar on here, prior to the vote in Scotland?

Bit like we keep pointing out that UKIP haven't told us what it would cost to leave Europe....

That only depends if it costs more than the membership fee, you know the one that rises and penalises anyone doing well!

[Bruce Rioja]

[Prufrock]

[Prufrock]

"Four of the major parties have not provided "anything like full details" on plans to cut the deficit, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said."

Those 4 being the Tories, Labour, Lib Dems and the SNP. The only four who have a chance of having any real influence.

So that's good.

[Lord Kangana]

May I add my two penn'orth?

I was going to go on QT about a decade ago, and someone phoned me up about a week in advance to check my politics, and any potential questions I might have and my political current interests (hot topics, so to speak).

I don't know whether they do this anymore, but I felt that they were assessing their audience in an impartial-as-possible way.

I didn't go on, but I know those who did were invited to bring along questions which they submitted in advance and they were selected just before the programme (I don't know whether this process was random).

[Prufrock]

I'm pretty sure it's still the same.

Well, I've just got back from the pub with a mate who's going on one of the QT-type programmes in two weeks and the process they use is exactly that.

He's hoping to ask when UKIP are going back to their core vote as he's confused as to whether he should buy Um-Bongo, and whether he should keep hold of the shares he bought in a flood-defence company after gay marriage was legalised.

[Lord Kangana]

Anyway, to be completely honest, I find it totally c*ntf*ckish of people when they claim left-wing bias. We have an overwhelming mass of right wing media that fall over themselves at this time of year to get their distorted message across.

The second anyone says something like "I don't mind Nick CLegg to be fair to him" or "That Miliband chap isn't half as bad as is made out" you get these huge outbursts, of for want of a better word, c*ntf*ckishness "aaaahhhhh, they're polluting our children's minds with their left/liberal/gay/whateverthefucktheyjustthoughtof conspiracy agenda".

Reminds me of those bellends in Russia who claim that homosexuals are mounting some kind of propaganda war aimed at children. Really? Maybe your children are just less f*cking childish than you, hmm? Stop it. You're just being silly.

[Beefheart]

Anyway, to be completely honest, I find it totally c*ntf*ckish of people when they claim left-wing bias. We have an overwhelming mass of right wing media that fall over themselves at this time of year to get their distorted message across.

The second anyone says something like "I don't mind Nick CLegg to be fair to him" or "That Miliband chap isn't half as bad as is made out" you get these huge outbursts, of for want of a better word, c*ntf*ckishness "aaaahhhhh, they're polluting our children's minds with their left/liberal/gay/whateverthefucktheyjustthoughtof conspiracy agenda".

Reminds me of those bellends in Russia who claim that homosexuals are mounting some kind of propaganda war aimed at children. Really? Maybe your children are just less f*cking childish than you, hmm? Stop it. You're just being silly.

Well you would say that, you cultural marxist, you.

To be fair, you do see some people accusing the likes of Andrew Neil of being biased in favour of the Tories when actually I think he does a good job of being balanced, though Kippers do seem to be the worst for it. I agree that it's cuntfuckishness.

[Bruce Rioja]

I seem to recall that they wouldn't let the boy Crayons onto QT because his questions were a little too uncomfortable for the BBC's left-wing agenda.

[tomshaw1988]

BBC are more left wing than labour there that biased, they allowed a bunch of lefties all to gang up on Cameron then other day on BBC radio 1 and even Farage pointed it out at the political debate the other week when the audience had majority left wing view.

[Beefheart]

BBC are more left wing than labour there that biased, they allowed a bunch of lefties all to gang up on Cameron then other day on BBC radio 1 and even Farage pointed it out at the political debate the other week when the audience had majority left wing view.

It wasn't a bunch of lefties on Radio 1, it was a bunch of teenagers. Y'know, the Radio 1 audience, it just so happens that this demographic will be more left leaning. Farage is talking out of his arse.

[Prufrock]

Thinking that the BBC is "biased" is my litmus test as to whether people can spot bias! The BBC are *painfully* committed to never being biased against anyone ever. About anything.

As for the "ganging up" by lefties, that only works if you class Labour and the Lib Dems as lefties, in which case a) you're talking bollocks, but b) if they are, then a massive left-wing majority is representative of the country!