Wednesday 14 April 2010

Selective Statistics

FactCheck with Cathy Newman on Channel 4 do a good job 'fisking' the manifestos of the Lib/Lab/Con and all three have been shown to have 'twisted' statistics - so they have, in effect, lied to the electorate. Quelle Surprise!

Check out her findings on the Conservatives here, Labour here and the LibDems here.

Why do the political parties attempt to hoodwink the electorate? Do they not realize that someone will take the time and trouble to validate the claims they make? So why do what they do and 'spin' the statistics? To be blunt - why lie?

What happened to honesty and transparency in politics, subjects which they assure the electorate that they have now 'got'? Political parties need to remember a simple lesson - if they want the electorate to trust them, they have to trust the electorate!*

Oh and yes, in fairness, I have to point out they 'did' UKIP's manifesto - but only managed to find one 'debatable' error and that is here.


* And that means be honest with all the facts, discussing all the topics and being open about areas in which their policies are dictated by our membership of the EU!

2 comments:

James Higham said...

Allow me to steal some of this.

Witterings from Witney said...

Be my guest James.