Monday, March 28, 2005

Honest politics

I mean, just how difficult is it to tell voters the truth - spoof Tory poster

The weekend's revelations about the Tories plans for huge cuts in public spending might be dominating the agenda, but they aren't the only party trying to mislead voters.

The papers are full of articles by ministers and their friends arguing that a vote for progressive anti-war candidates (or the LibDems) will not teach Labour a lesson, but will lead to a Tory government - completely missing the point that most tactical voting is done on a seat by seat basis. In fact there are several sites such as So Now Who Do We Vote For which are set up precisely to help you work out how best to vote tactically and ensure that you don't let the Tories in.

Interestingly, the Tories are paying for ads in the Islington Press telling people that a vote for the LibDems will let Labour back in. As the Tories have no prospect of even coming second, let alone winning it seems that they are afraid that tactical voting could cost them their deposits and are desperately trying to shore up their core vote.

Of course, the past masters at misleading voters are the LibDems and their graphs. The latest Islington North graph is a classic example and follows the text book advice: "Does a strong third party challenge make a nonsense of claims that it's a two horse race? Simple, just leave them off the graph - the voters won't notice."

The misleading LibDem graph
misleading LibDem graph
and the real figures, showing the extent of Green support in Islington North.
accurate graph

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