The PM woke up to a birthday treat he tells us this morning…the BBC actually reported some good news for the government….despite Austerity public services seem to be carrying on the same if not better in many people’s opinion.
Many people in Britain think the quality of public services overall have been maintained or improved in the past five years despite government cuts, a poll for the BBC suggests.
More of the 1,031 people surveyed feel bin collections, parks and libraries, schools and bus services have improved than those who think they are worse.
The BBC being the BBC it still managed to slip the knife in, continuing:
But the responses indicate people think the quality of elderly care, hospitals, police and road maintenance is lower.
But is that true?
No.
Look at the police…yes 28% think services are worse, and only 15% think things are better…but 43% think things are the same.
So how would you interpret that? Does that ‘indicate people think the quality of policing is lower’?
Some do…but the vast majority don’t…58% in fact.
The same goes for care for the elderly….22% say it has got worse, 11% better, and 22% the same…..so the majority think things are the same or better not worse.
It’s the same for all the figures except roads which the majority agree have got worse.
That is not the impression you get listening to the news…..all you hear is that some things are perceived to have gotten better but policing, hospitals and care for the elderly are worse.
As these are some of the most important services you may wonder why the BBC puts that negative spin on those particular figures….and of course the public perception of these services must have been effected by the massive negative coverage the BBC has given them for the last 3 years and the effect of the supposed cuts on them.
Mark Easton does admit this:
However, the survey indicates that people who use a particular service are more likely to say it has got better than the general population. (and those who don’t listen to the BBC rumour service?)
But again listening to the actual news bulletins and you’d have no idea of that qualification.
The full survey results show that half of respondents were pleased that public sector spending has been reduced, and that 70% felt reductions in benefits have been necessary. Will Mark Easton tell us that?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2451549/How-BBC-buried-story-MI5-attack-Left-wing-papers-leaks-played-down.html
The daily mail is leading the charge.
The cat is out of the bag, and every slip by the BBC is being pounced on. This seems to be tied in with the renegotiation of the TV licence and with the press regulation. Also note a privatization of the BBC bill is actually up and running (doubtfull success possibility though!)
Surely the BBC should lead the charge on less is more. If they stopped all BBC broadcasting the country would be better off. We may then start to hear the truth rather than it be drowned out by their lies and evasions.
I would even promise to pay my License Fee for another 5 years if they didn’t broadcast so that we would give them a good severance package. Honestly, I would pay it for 5 more years with no broadcasting, just to be free from their malign influence.
I can see why the BBC reports its own survey results through gritted teeth (cf Mason on BBC news last night) but – yet again – the “real” background to this is buried and not mentioned. What is ignored is that there have been no aggregate “cuts” under the coalition: the “torycutz” are a figment of the imagination of the left and the faux-right. Sure, there have been cuts here and there mostly overseen by the parasites who enabled the over-expenditure in the first place. But the “cuts” have been, basically, a redirection of state expenditure – not its elimination. The UK is still having to borrow to maintain the state’s day-to-day deficit which even Osborne admits won’t be eliminated for another, what, 8 years or so.
So God forbid that the underlying situation should be mentioned let alone discussed. Since it suits both the BBC/Labour/Guardianistas and the LibDems/CINOs to pretend that there are “cuts” we out here have to be content with the mock-debate enabled by the BBC and (to be fair) echoed by most of the rest of the MSM.
Most of the “cuts” are in fact just reductions to the planned budget increases – not that the BBC would allow any facts to get in the way of their “narrative”.
Let’s face it the BBC are struggling to find savings to handle the freeze in their settlement – so a real reduction would bring them to their knees I assume.
Far be it from me to advise the BBC on its financial affairs but the closure of BBC3 and Radio1 (both of which create/broadcast identical dross to that which commercial channels create/broadcast without dipping their hands into the taxpayer’s pocket) would relieve any strain on the BBC’s finances. The BBC could also close down their “local” broadcasting activities which (if London is anything to go by) are effectively useless (in terms of education, information and entertainment) and, moreover, act as a drag on the development of non-state local broadcasting.
Once again it’s a question of language and interpretation.
However it is fair for them to say that more people think the police, health and elderly care has worsened in the last five years. That’s what the figures say. And note you can’t say refuse collection is perceived as better without acknowledging that health is perceived as worse. And it’s only about perception not an objective measure.
What they don’t say is that the ‘cuts’ have not been evident for the last five years and only really started last year, that health has had no cuts in spending and that the police have been in free fall as far as standards are concerned for decades.
But considering how much the BBC hate the Tories it is a miracle they mentioned this at all. Why didn’t they just bury it like they have with the MI5-Guardian spat? After all it is their survey and they are accountable to no-one. So what’s the point of this article? An attempt to appear balanced? Or is their an ulterior motive yet to be revealed?
Did you actually read this article?
“Look at the police…yes 28% think services are worse, and only 15% think things are better…but 43% think things are the same.
So how would you interpret that? Does that ‘indicate people think the quality of policing is lower’?
Some do…but the vast majority don’t…58% in fact.”
‘more people’ do not think it has got worse
Did you actually read my post? Read the first line again.
What they are comparing is ‘better’ and ‘worse’ whilst ignoring ‘the same’. It’s what they do to put across ideas they want to fix in peoples heads.
What the actual figures say is not in dispute it is the language they use to present their interpretations.
The wonder of statistics. See?
As I`ve said elsewhere…there`ll be a pothole survivors and Victim Support group before too long.
They will want free Botox and implants to be put on all our roads, that have fallen victim to this wasting disease of the tarmac community.
Bloody heartless Tories are to blame…and I for one have got my wristband .
Oh those poor disability scooters-and the threats that come when a lardarse from Stockton gets her fizzy drink all over her chips as she heads for the benefits office…compo can`t be high enough for such trauma.
The shock absorbers can`t take any more stress as it is.
Won`t somebody think of the suspensions?
Oh…and though we`re worried about the old as well as the potholes…the BBC won`t be bothering their arses with THAT…why the hell do they go on about euthanasia, if the old crop up as anybodys concern?
Maybe we could bury the old in the potholes…and make a creative solution from two problems…and the greenhouse gases from the crem would diminish too…
Interesting comment by Fraser Nelson in The Telegraph yesterday:
Look David Cameron
So when the poll turned out to give good news, the BBC relegated coverage.