. Yesterday morning they started off a new [Don’t] Have Your Say thread with the following question:
Will this year’s Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool enable the Tories to regain support from Labour?
With rumours of a possible snap election, a poll for the Observer suggests that just 13% of voters view party leader David Cameron as the party leader most able to handle a crisis – compared to 60% for Gordon Brown.
However, Mr Cameron has told the BBC’s Andrew Marr that he is ready for a snap election.
At the start of the conference, the party has pledged to scrap stamp duty for first-time buyers on homes worth under £250,000 and offer tax breaks for families with children worth up to £2,000 a year.
Other items on today’s agenda include urban regeneration and a speech by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Can David Cameron regain public support? What would you like to see on the agenda? Are you attending this week’s conference?
Read the main story [Tories to make stamp duty pledge]
– a fairy typical BBC Views Online approach (i.e. from the left), for instance:
Paragraph 1: the presumption that increased support can only come from Labour voters – ignoring other parties and the biggest party of all: those who stay at home;
Paragraph 2: Yes, lets select and quote a poll that we like from the Observer;
Paragraph 5: Again, the presumption that Cameron does not have public support, i.e. that he has lost it, rather than the reality – that polls go up and down.
But that’s by the by. The real shocker is that having asked that question yesterday (and published hundreds of replies), BBC Views Online has changed the question completely today! The question is now:
Are Tory tax cuts a vote winner?
Shadow chancellor George Osborne has pledged to cut inheritance tax and stamp duty in a speech to the Conservative conference.
The Tories want to raise the inheritance tax threshold to £1m and scrap stamp duty for first-time buyers on homes worth under £250,000.
The Conservatives would pay for the cuts by introducing a £25,000 levy on “non domiciles” – business people who register abroad for tax purposes.
With rumours of a possible snap election, a Observer poll suggests that just 13% of voters view David Cameron as the leader most able to handle a crisis – compared to 60% for Gordon Brown.
Are the tax cuts a good idea? Can the proposals boost support for the Tories? Does Mr Cameron have the right qualities to be PM?
Read the main story [Tories would cut inheritance tax]
…with all of the answers to yesterday’s question displayed under the new question – a question just as loaded as before. I expect if we wait a bit longer it’ll become Why have racist Tories lurched to the right?
Just for the full slippery BBC Views Online ‘stealth edit’ effect, one of the answers to yesterday’s question has been removed – it was the top answer, the one most recommended by readers, and by a big margin. That answer was:
Added: Sunday, 30 September, 2007, 08:45 GMT 09:45 UK
the BBC interviewed david cameron this sunday morning, asked clearly “you are behind in the polls! how are you going to change this?”
david cameron replied “polls go up and down, you should ask a polster about this, im here to present a real change for the british voter.”
he then went on to list policies and answer questions on the individual points.
at the end of the interview, the program went to latest news headlines, the first headline was read out, “david cameron has said he is worried and faces a big challenge to reverse his party’s poor showing in the polls!”
come on BBC, disgraceful reporting!
how can you tell us you are not pro labour biased when you report like this?
[denzil69]
That top answer was online for most of yesterday, and does not appear to contravene any of the BBC’s House Rules. How come it has gone now? On what grounds was it removed?
Same old Tories? More like same old BBC…
Thank you to Biased BBC reader Notasheep for preserving the complete text of the real top answer. You can verify that it has definitely gone by looking through the answers in chronological order: from the timestamps it should be somewhere around page 96 at the time of writing.
Yup, 2 examples in one of BBC contempt for the licence payer.
1. Removing without explanation the ‘most recommended’ answer to their original question [an answer highly critical of the BBC, with an example of their bias].
2. Simply changing the original question, but leaving ppls answers there, making some ppl look stupid, as if they can’t understand the question.
To add…
This is an abuse of the editorial process arguably every bit as serious as faking footage of the Queen’s storming out, possibly more so in that the BBC has deliberately misrepresented the views hundreds of people. The public was asked their opinion on a particular matter, and the BBC published the answers. The BBC now pretends that the answers were given to a question that was never originally posed – a gross misrepresentation!
The BBC owes an apology to everyone who answered that question, and to the public in general for deceiving them.
I have seen enough. I am convinced that the BBC is biased and in contravention of their charter. The board of trustees must ultimately be held to account for their failure over this pathetic excuse for a public broadcaster.
And while were on the subject of the Tories. Anyone been listening to 5 live today? I’ve been tuning in when I had the chance. Seems to me the “biggest” story they’ve covered isn’t Inheritance Tax but School Blazers.
They’ve been taking the you know what all day on one tiny little comment from a Tory.
Talk about the BBC dumbing down. How about just being Dumb?
Reading the HYS it is even more surprising that the BBC have failed to remove a comment from a poster making exactly the same assertions as (denzil69).
I guess this is an oversight from the BBC which they will take immediate action to correct!.
Pesonally, I had a comment on the HYS about Nepal which was the most recommended comment removed after three days for no apparent reason, I checked on newssniffer and my post was also missing from the list of removed comments.
There was a phone in this morning on Victoria Derbyshire about the Conservative Plans for Tax cuts.
At twelve on the news they only played excerpts from the critical ones.
The HYS question has been altered to a more general one.
Are you sure the is the same HYS? I ask because I can’t find the one stated – there is a huge one that ask s :
‘The Conservative Party will outline more policy proposals today at their annual conference. What do you think of their plans so far?
Shadow home secretary David Davis will announce the Tories plans to scrap ID cards.
He will also pledge to end the early release scheme of prisoners, adding the scheme puts lives at risk, leaves crimes unpunished and interrupts rehabilitation.
His speech follows that of shadow chancellor George Osborne, who pledged to cut inheritance tax and stamp duty for first time buyers.
What do you think of the Conservative Party’s policies? Can the proposals boost support for David Cameron and the Party? ‘
If it’s the same one it has changed again. Although the date remains 30 September 2007 08:22 – before the conference started and before Cameroons inteview with Jug Ears!
NB Most of the ‘most reccomended’ are critical of NuLiebore
Yup, the question has been changed YET AGAIN – but the same answers are there, and the date/time stamp remains unaltered.
whilst looking on google to see if my latest venture had caught any links (it hadnt) i found notasheep’s post about my have your say post removal and followed the link here.
i emailed the bbc site to ask why it was removed, it wasnt against any of their terms and cond.
it was on there for almost two days, this is the 3rd time they have removed a supported post.
they have never replied!
their new editing trick seems to be to leave your post in an awaiting moderation status, then publish it once the forum has been closed to read only.
this has been going on for some time.