UNISONActive is an unofficial blog produced by UNISON activists for UNISON activists. Bringing news, briefings and events from a progressive left perspective.

Wednesday 9 October 2013

BBC spins austerity sunshine story despite poll facts

The BBC is today spinning a survey of 1031 people to mark the fifth anniversary of the £1.2 trillion bank bail out and is headlining that despite huge cuts in public spending there is increased satisfaction in the quality of services. Yet the findings of the survey itself don't bear that out. The BBC is silent on its own poll conclusions that 63% of survey respondents are worried about the cuts already made to public services and a majority (52%) are angry about the cuts.

Significantly and at odds with the BBC spin, 40% of respondents said that services have got worse and only 15% had said they are better. On specific services the findings are mixed with positive ratings for refuse collection, libraries, schools and leisure services combined with strongly held views that the quality of elderly care, hospitals, police and road maintenance is lower.

The most important fact of all of course (and one overlooked by the BBC) is that 75% of the total public spending cuts earmarked by this government across all the public services are still to implemented. And that’s just from the spending plans already set out.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24454006