There are those who say that polls and surveys are riggable and often actually rigged in all sorts of ways.
And their claims are routinely poopoo’d by a priesthood of self declared experts.
But there is a story doing the rounds on Twitter right now that shows that the communication of poll results, often run by Tory founded firms, can indeed be influenced in ways that are favourable to specific political agenda i.e. pro-Government
I came across this story because Jim Pickard of the FT was asking about the new Boris Johnson policy of combining right to buy with Universal Credit.
It doesn’t appear to have been thought through very deeply and it will be interesting to see how the Treasury champions it. How can they get mortgage providers to lend money to people who are not even allowed universal credit if they have enough money for a deposit?
If the banks offer 100% mortgages then houses will essentially be given away by the government, housebuilders and banks for free.
In the thread below Jim is asking for help doing the housing benefit / mortgage calculations.
@Wetbanditsdan was then apparently blocked for raising the issue of the FT not reporting the 2017 Corbyn YouGov story.
But John Burn-Murdoch is the FT’s chart guy.
He thinks the YouGov story is an enormous deal, as shown by his tweet at the top of this article.
The FT’s editorial team clearly has its own ideas.
I do hope the folks over at Private Eye can include something about this in their Street of Shame.
For now I’m happy to listen to the Treasury, follow Wetbanditsdan and listen out for Acoba Chair Eric Pickles’s upcoming appearance at William Wragg’s select committee on Greensill – remember that?
