Is the BBC 'Have Your Say' site representative?

[PAH]

I love it when the BBC mods have to trawl through all the posts so they can have two opposing/balanced comments on the lead topic - since %90+ of posts are all of the same opinion.

It would be easier for them to post a comment themselves than search them out. If they can rig phone ins that is child's play.

[Bagpuss]

I think most of the lefties post on guardiantalk. Or are playing online gambling/bingo. Or youtube. Or watching big brother.

Lets face it most A/B vote Conservative and most D/E vote Labour. It is only the C1/C2 who really vary.

Not strictly true, the Conservative party have always had a strong working class vote, that's how Thatcher got in and Major. Conversely Labour have always had strong middle class support. It's not a simply class and or inteligence that determine voting patterns, otherwise Mondeo man from Essex wouldn't be so important to both parties.



The Party with Electoral Magic

THE AIM of this article is to examine the British Conservative party between the years 1832 and 1914 - between the passing of the Great Reform Act and the outbreak of the First World War - with the object of understanding how far the party was able to adapt and survive in an age of growing democracy. The historical achievement of the party in the longer term has been to win enough support from the British electorate to make it the natural governing party and yet to do this in a political system dominated after the Second Reform Act of 1867 by the votes of the working class. It has been the most successful right-wing party in any European democracy. Its image has always been - and indeed remains - that of a party of property. It has protected privilege, justified inequality and defended the established order of society, not, one would have thought, issues of great appeal to the British working man. Yet paradoxically its least successful period since the Great Reform Act occurred between 1846 and 1867 when the more restricted franchise might have been expected to work to the party’s advantage. Yet once the electorate was enlarged, the Conservatives’ performance improved markedly. This has remained true in the universal franchise of the twentieth century. Electoral scientists tell us that the Conservatives have been able at most general elections to win at least one-third of the working-class vote. Or, to put the matter another way, the party has consistently drawn half its own support from the working classes.

[Gonzo]

Now I'm fairly conservative (big and small C), and tend towards a moderately libertarian viewpoint, but it seems that 90% of respondents on HYS are at least as right wing as me, and many of them far more so.

The few times that I have read through the HYS parts the majority of the comments have struck me as being left-wing tripe.

Maybe I am more right-wing than I thought. Or perhaps you are more left-wing than you think.

Will go and investigate some more now.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I.......

If this was a true reflection of the thoughts and feelings of the populace, then the Labour party would be unelectable, the BNP would have a fair crack of getting into Downing Street and sales of the Daily Mail would exceed all other newspapers combined.
.....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/default.stm

Don't forget that due to our carp electoral system, this government, in common with the all the Tory ones under Thatcher and Major was elected by a minority of those who bothered to vote - in other words, of all those who voted, more voted for someone other than what we got, than voted in favour.

[Spacecadet]

there was a HYS recently about what tests immigrants should face.
My comment recommending the Voight Kampf test was out right rejected but this is deemed to be appropriate:

The "are you fit to travel test" - if the answer if yes, immediate repatriation.

If the answer is no, to be held in a secure place, until the answer to the above is Yes.

It really is that simple - we are overcrowded, and our quality of life continues to be ruined by immigration.

[hugebrain]

I'm quite perplexed by this.

Any ideas?

Is it because the BBC are mad government-sponsored communists, so any normal comment seems right-wing by comparison to the drivel they churn out?

[oracleslave]

Is it because the BBC are mad government-sponsored communists, so any normal comment seems right-wing by comparison to the drivel they churn out?

Steady on old chap or you'll start sounding like NickyG in a minute. And no I don't think that's what it is.

[KathyWoolfe]

I get the same impression reading CEEFAX letters, although I also have the impression that most of them are written by ancient old retired farts like myself with nowt better to do. A few too many mentioning their pathetic pension increases.

PS Not that I personally have nothing better to do, I spent today staring at a bit of the wall I have not stared at in ages.

PS I am 32

There's no hope for you - give up immediately!

[Churchill]

PS I am 32

Judging by your avatar, you've had a hard life mate!

[shaunbhoy]

The few times that I have read through the HYS parts the majority of the comments have struck me as being left-wing tripe.

That is precisely the conclusion I drew. Too many wishy-washy contributors for it to be representative if you ask me. About as impartial as their phone-voting systems.