Mid-afternoon I recive this from Pippa Crerar the Evening Standard’s city hall editor:
Dear Ian,
You may not have noticed but we have amended our Mayoral polling story. The version online here http://bit.ly/IQvZdX has the correct figures. I would be grateful if could amend your piece below accordingly.
Thanks.
Pippa Crerar
Yes indeed it is amended – at lunchtime the standard was running the 80% story I quoted but now it is only 37% . A GALLOWAY style late swing. I asked how come?
Pippa replies…..’Human error I’m afraid.
Hmmmmmmmm…….
Since 2010, Boris Johnson has been mentioned in the Evening Standard 2,480 times. Ken Livingstone has been mentioned 686 times. will the cost of producing the Evening Standard be included in Boris’s election expenses?
Yeh. I swear every second time I glance at that rag it’s got some outrageously partisan story on how Boris is wonderful and Ken is bad (not that I’m a Ken fan mind you given his love for coppers and his desire to give them money and power).
…and he has been mentioned In Wee Georgie Osmond’s office 1,345,772 times, and that was just in February!
The sort of human error that naive young journalists make when they think their job is to report facts.
Thanks to Pippa Crerar for this article that may put the original ‘erroneous’ figures into context (that’s supposing of-course the article is factually accurate and not subject to any ‘revision’…)-
‘The multi-millionaires bank-rolling Boris Johnson’s election campaign can be revealed today.
Hedge fund boss Stanley Fink has donated £33,000 to the Mayor’s re-election battle against Ken Livingstone. And financier Sir John Beckwith has donated £25,000 — with the promise of another £25,000 to come if he likes the Tory’s manifesto.
Both businessmen praised Mr Johnson for defending the City and big business. Their donations are likely to be the tip of the iceberg with Mr Johnson on course to hit the £600,000 raised during the 2008 campaign.’
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/mayor/millionaire-will-double-boris-fund-gift-if-he-likes-manifesto-7545424.html
-that and the fact that Boris is an inbred aristocratic cunt…
If anyone can be arsed to download the YouGov poll results go to page 8 -78% of punters think Boris wants to help rich Londoners. 4% think he wants to help poor Londoners. Back to page 7 and 40% think Ken wants to help poor Londoners. 13% think he wants to help rich Londoners (i guess we’re talking about his mates here). Maths is obviously not Pippa’s strong point.
http://research.yougov.co.uk/news/2012/04/16/boris-bonus-outweighs-labour-lead/
Anonymous is right – The original story was correct.
It says the survey was done by YouGov for the Evening Standard; why not try asking YouGov directly what they say the figures are?