The 'Today in Parliament' presenter may be right in suggesting that the
decision will be reversed in the Commons. Managing the presentation of
information, ie spin, is a fundamental component of New Labour.
An interesting current example is the allegation that people are more likely
to recycle their rubbish if collections are reduced to a fortnighly basis.
So deeply is the spin embedded in Government thinking that they don't seem
to have noticed that there has been no attempt to explain the connection
between recycling and frequency of rubbish collection.
The Commons, full of party hacks, are not going to challenge this political
strategy of management of information..
But this strategy is about presentional, not facts. The statistics
themselves are not altered. A lively opposition can in anticipation of the
known publication dates prepare their own press releases .
It is sad that Lord Moser seems out of touch with the situation. Why focus
on pre-release? The Bill is about independence. And even at this stage
the Government is inventing a new bit of spin "the hub" to disguise the fact
that the proposed new Statistics Board will not make statistics more
independent (The Minister said that key proposal is that the hub will be
the separation of policy commentary from statistical commentary and
release.)
Thanks, Ted for the web reference to the House of Lords debate (that is the
source of information about "the hub". The URL worked OK a few times but
then I got the message "The link you followed is either outdated,
inaccurate, or the server has been instructed not to let you have it."
Is this an extension of Government spin??
Ray Thomas
-----Original Message-----
From: email list for Radical Statistics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Ted Harding
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 12:36 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: In the Lords
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldtoday/07.htm#hddr_1
Statistics and Registration Service Bill
3.58 pm
Clause 8 [Monitoring and reporting of official statistics]: Lord Moser moved
Amendment No. 42:
42: Clause 8, page 4, line 36, at end insert--
"( ) The Board is to monitor the arrangements for--
(a) the release of official statistics, and
(b) any access to official statistics in their final form
prior to publication."
.....
[I decline to summarise]
Final score:
Their Lordships divided: Contents, 196; Not-Contents, 133.
(And the presenter on "Today in Parliament" tonight thought that the result
would probably be reversed in the Commons).
Best wishes to all,
Ted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <[log in to unmask]>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
Date: 03-May-07 Time: 00:35:48
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