Green Groups Accuse OLR of PR Stitch-Up
According to the front page of the Guardian Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF and the Green Alliance are claiming that the government is using Deborah Mattinson's Opinion Leader Research to distort the evidence and get the required result on nuclear power from bogus public consultations.
Duh! Of course - that is why Gordon hires and re-hires his personal pollster's firm to the tune of £3 million. She tells him what he wants to hear.
Greenpeace says that they along "with other NGOs, trade unions, renewable energy companies and representatives of the nuclear industry met with OLR and the government in July to discuss this stakeholder briefing pack. This document was full of pro-nuclear opinion masquerading as fact ... This document is fundamentally flawed and cannot form the basis for a full public consultation." So it is not just Guido who thinks OLR's work is another form of push-polling.
Duh! Of course - that is why Gordon hires and re-hires his personal pollster's firm to the tune of £3 million. She tells him what he wants to hear.
Greenpeace says that they along "with other NGOs, trade unions, renewable energy companies and representatives of the nuclear industry met with OLR and the government in July to discuss this stakeholder briefing pack. This document was full of pro-nuclear opinion masquerading as fact ... This document is fundamentally flawed and cannot form the basis for a full public consultation." So it is not just Guido who thinks OLR's work is another form of push-polling.
34 comments:
The clue is in the question: Opinion Leader Research? Research into leading opinion (in the direction required by the customer - G. Brown esq.)
This is a typical method of government which Gordon Brown specialises in. He will commission a report and tell the author what to do.
For example, he commissioned failed banker Derek Wanless to write reports on the NHS which happily co-incided with his own views.
When someone with an independent and fiery mind like former FT Lex columnist David Freud comes along and writes a report on welfare reform, Brown doesn't like the conclusions and the ideas are pulped.
So we end up with an NHS wasting billions on PFI deals and fat GP salaries whilst people waste their lives on the dole and incapacity benefits.
We've had nice consultation exercises already. Wasn't there one on GM foods where the conclusion was known from the start?
Our listening chancellor "consults" in a manner fit for Orwell's 1984 novel, he just uses government PR and cash to spread his conclusions and stamp on opposing voices.
They should look at - www.mrs.org.uk/standards/qual.htm
The Market Research Society oversees professional standards and has a complaints procedure.
Of particular interest will be the way in which OLR recruit respondents for their 'qualitative' research. The sneakiest way to get a particular response is to pre-select those respondents who will be inclined to voice the desired opinion (or be sure to omit those who won't).
Just seen a trailer for Jonathan Ross's prog on BBC1 tonight - he's grown a beard.... and to be honest Guido, he looks a lot like the pictorial representation of you in your blog header.
ALFIE
Money well spent on Woss the tosser wasn't it. I'm so pleased to see the licence fee is not being wasted. I wonder Bliar hasn't put in for a job there , or Prescuntt. Nobody actually has to do anything as long as the party line is toed, and there appears to be no sackable offence. Magic!
While disagreeing with the principle of the OLRs and Broon's use of them to give "credibility and public approval" to his generally awful plans, I have to say that, in this instance, the chances are that the material was correct and Greenpeace is in the wrong. After all, they aren't exactly known for their open minds on the subject of nuclear power now, are they?
The longer toothed amongst us may remember OLR's use of 100 'opinion formers' as a poll to ascertain the relative merits of Messrs Brown and Cameron's respective characters. This was then picked apart and presented as a statistically meaningful piece of research and sprayed across the front page of the Sun. That, as I recall, was a 'freebie' for Brown from OLR - and I can think of 3 million good reasons why they did it!
Greenpeace says ....." This document was full of ..... opinion masquerading as fact ... This document is fundamentally flawed and cannot form the basis for a full public consultation."
Pot, kettle, black, the, calling.
Some self-assembly required.
Daniel Finkelstein has apparently launched an attack on Ming Campbell.
Commenting on the prematurely-aging out-of-touch idiot who pretends to have some idea of politics, Mr Campbell said; "I have no views about Mr Finkelstein"
The trouble with the greenazis, trade unions and "ngo's" is that they must not ever let on that everybody else is right and they are wrong, because such a policy-position would terminally expose their dangerous isolation in unreality and their total lack of real support.
They are socialists, so of course they are wrong; their towering iconic leaders all kill people to show how serious they are, and were, about promoting wrongness.
45govt said... I wonder Bliar hasn't put in for a job there
That Bliar bit you use always cracks me up.
David Davis said...
The trouble with the greenazis.
Clever that. Trouble is it got a wee bit muddled later in your post. Basically not only did we not have a fuc***' clue what you were getting at. But we had all lost interest, shame after such a promising start. Don't bother coming back.
Ah! you have resorted to impersonation you little weasel.
David Davis @ 8'45. the REAL 45govt agrees with you. The brain-dead socialist who impersonated me at 9,16, who is probably Mike, will have givenn himself away I trust by his very basic English. Pitiable.
govt said...
Ah! you have resorted to impersonation you little weasel.
David Davis @ 8'45. the REAL 45govt agrees with you. The brain-dead socialist who impersonated me at 9,16, who is probably Mike, will have "givenn" himself away I trust by his very basic English. Pitiable.
givenn, what the fuc* is a "givenn" ! You illiterate imbecile.
They had better watch out, Greenpeace obtained a judicial review on government nuclear consultation.
dear guido
if i may arm your ferret further, i am a greenmonarchist, this nuclear stuff is non sense, why becasue whilst we need a few for nuclear weapons capability , we dont need what is being thought on Gordons green house gas board.
we can use less electricity , this is a policy to use more , no doubt sponsered by sony etc.
try asking the question of how much electricty is needed to your sources, then ask why it needs to be nuclear , then ask hwo much CO2 is made in mining uranium , building the plants , then ask how much metals and waste needs to buried for 25,000 years.
also Gordons sanction of £700 million for cambridge nuclear fusion project is to understand how to get electrcity from fusion. its technology already known , that £700 million could have gone on solar or wind , hope the cambridge lot behind the research arnt connected to someone , sure is a lot of cash ??
deep greens very unhappy with gordons lies , and are now willing to sanction his formal rodgering together with alexander, milliband 1 and 2 , and wegie ben mk 2.
they have now seriously lied .
thanks
pig farmer
Dear 45govt,
The NULAB RATS impersonate posters quite often and they see nothing wrong in it because they have no sense of right and wrong! I think all real bloggers can see through their bullshit!
NuLab vermin,
Why not crawl back in the sewer where you belong?
Whatever one's views on nuclear, an independent consultation from the Brownies on the matter ain't going to happen. Consider Broon's brother is responsible for promoting nuclear for EDF. Blinky Balls' father in law is very high up in the nuclear lobby. Wonder who'll be getting lots of consultation contracts and so on? Disgusting. I used to think they were like the pigs in Animal Farm. Now I realise they are much, much worse.
english democrat said...The NULAB RATS impersonate posters quite often and they see nothing wrong in it because they have no sense of right and wrong!
Oh no we don't !
Careful Guido. While you may well be right, accusing a polling firm of telling ppl what they want to hear may attract lerned attention.
God my spelling went to bits there.
Consultation???? Now there's a REAL joke - only Gordon can tell them like that!
Good heavens, a troll working on the weekend!
I wonder if anyone in the Labour government has ever actually used the word 'consultation' in the correct sense? They get people along to make it look like they're listening, but pay no attention to what's been said.
I feel sorry for the environmental groups here - what a waste of their time and effort.
Some may say that all this MMGW stuff is simply a way to prepare the wests governments and their people for a world with far less cheapish oil around to use and most importantly TAX.
Cheapish oil uncontaminated by any Iranian bound Thermo nuclear devices that is. Thus helping to pave the way for Bush Brown Clinton Blair and the rest of their international compass and t-square throwing chums, long awaited new world order.
However
I could not possibly comment.
Read about that pathfinder business today,Prescott demolishing peoples homes so developers can build identical new ones for a big profit,almost threw up my cornflakes,most corrupt government ever,bring back Maggie all is forgiven I say.
Go download penn & tellers "bullshit" about greenpeace its so funny they got em to sign a petition to ban water.Most of what they spout these days is utter bollox and their founder says this! he left because of it.
The sooner people realise that Greenpeace and various other wonk organisations mean dick shit in the scheme of reality, then the sooner we can get on with implementing more nuclear power stations etc and be less dependant on the likes of Comrade Vladi(FSB) and the mad mullahs for our energy needs.
Anon 1:47
Too right
Hopefully they will get so much stick for being directly responsible for all these new 'Green Taxes', the people may start throwing rotten eggs at the silly eco-obsessed wankers in the street.
A true Labour and Conservative party masterstroke if ever their was one.
Get in potentially almost infinite amounts of new tax revenue while completely buggering at least two minor but very important opposition party's in one shot.
The Lib/Dems are now over cooked toast not worth the scraping.
The Greens have now outlived their usefullness to corporate and government greed.
So must now both resign themselves to having the collective value of the other green stuff attached to Gordon's tie. Which is no more then periodic introverted paranoid amusement for our current dangerously deranged despotic leader.
I hate nulab gansters with a passion thats hard to match, however that blair clone cameron and his wanker friends are just another set of crooks itching to get their snouts in the gravy trough.
All they know is if it moves tax it steal it or fuck it.
No surprise here then. As Guido notes, using OLR to frame the right answer (rather than the right question) is a frequent trick of this government. Another example is the recent Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's poll, asking whether the public liked the idea of animal-human hybrids. OLR came up with the questions; ICM did the dirty work. The questions were loaded, and presumed that hybrids have (in the past) opened major doors in scientific research. They haven't, and there is no evidence to suppose that hybrids will - but the HFEA poll led its victims - sorry, the people quizzed - into believing that they will. Hence the Government can claim that the British people support hybrids.
Just look at the consultation on HIPs.They used a company that was going to profit from them.Quelle surprise,they thought it a good idea.Nulab have corruption written through them like Blackpool through a stick of rock.
The OLR plays the same role as Stalin's 'Secret Department' by preparing agenda's for the Politburo....ooops...Cabinet and carrying out snooping on "fellow travellers".
Expect show-trials of Blairite dissidents and lots of nice photo's with "Uncle Gordon" having children on his knee.....
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