‘I didn’t censor Greens from report’ – Andrew Neil
Broadcaster Andrew Neil has protested his innocence after being accused of excluding the Green Party from BBC coverage of political opinion polls.
Blogger Tom Pride told us yesterday (Christmas Eve) that Andrew Neil had censored the Green Party – and demonstrated with a graphic showing the state of the major parties in the opinion polls.
This put UKIP in third on 15 per cent, and the Liberal Democrats fourth on seven per cent – missing out the Greens, who are currently enjoying eight per cent support.
But in a tweet today (Christmas Day), Andrew Neil told Vox Political and others that he had not tried to mislead anyone – the information had come from YouGov and had been used in good faith.
He wrote: “No censorship. Used YouGov graphic which didn’t inc. Greens. By mistake Won’t repeat mistake”.
In the spirit of the Season of Goodwill, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and take him at his word. We can resume hostilities (or at least paranoid suspicions) later.
Merry Christmas, everybody!
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Merry Xmas also to your good self Mike,& your family,let`s hope that 2015 brings better fortunes for many people in the country.Like yourself,i can give Andrew the benefit of the doubt on this one,even though the absence of the green poll must have stood out like a sore thumb on this chart i would have thought.PEACE & LOVE TO ALL.
Personally, I wouldn’t believe a word of what Andrew Neil says. When he is found out it all becomes a mistake.
Worth checking the Yougov graphic because if they are censoring the greens then that is worrying….
Yes, the YouGov graphic is the same as the BBC’s; Con/Lab/UKIP/Lib Dem and no mention of the Greens, regardless of their position in individual polls.
YouGov don’t yet regard the Green/4th position to be a trend, but rather an occasional outpolling of the Lib Dems:
“But for this to become a trend, the Green party would have to begin averaging higher than the Liberal Democrats over the longer term, rather than outpolling them only on occasion.”
(https://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/12/21/greens-average-higher-lib-dems/)
Happy Christmas one and all!
YouGov are a Tory biased polling site anyway. Wasn’t it set up by Jeffrey Archer?
A late Happy Christmas to you Mike. I’ve been sunning myself on the Costas in t-shirt and shorts till yesterday. Have a good New Year.