The BBC is totally out of control. At 16.15, the BBC were reporting Labour net gains of 240 seats out of 3,032 declared. At 15.18 Sky were showing just 171 Labour gains out of a total of 6,137 seats declared.
The BBC are way behind in their totalizing, and cherry picking the Labour gains. The BBC have consistently been showing about 7% of all seats contested as Labour gains. Sky consistently shows under 3% of all seats contested as Labor gains.
This cannot be accidental – it has been a consistent pattern for the last sixteen hours of coverage. Of course it makes no difference to the ultimate result, but what it does is enable the BBC to slant the entire day’s news output to one of Labour success.
The BBC figure of over 7% of all seats contested as Labour gains is ludicrous. It is so far removed from reality, and they are so far behind Sky in adding up the total number of seats, that it is a statistical impossibility for this to have happened as an accident for the last sixteen hours – as impossible as your winning if you just sat in a casino for sixteen hours betting red on every single spin of the roulette wheel. This is deliberate and methodical spin by Purnell’s boys at the BBC.
Those 16.15 figures:
BBC
Lab 1461 (+240) Con 1072 (-178) Lib Dem 367 (-233) UKIP 142 (+140)
Sky
Lab 3036 (+171) Con 2200 (-167) Lib Dem 745 (-178) UKIP 156 (+140)
UPDATE
To spell it out further.
The BBC is showing New Labour as having a 14% increase in their number of seats. Sky is showing New Labour as having a 5% increase in their number of seats.
The BBC is showing the Tories as having a 14% decrease in their number of seats. Sky is showing the Tories as having a 6% decrease in their number of seats.
The BBC is showing the Lib Dems as having a 38% decrease in their number of seats. Sky is showing the Lib Dems as having a 20% decrease in their number of seats.
This effect can only be achieved consistently by a very careful non-random selection of which seats the BBC is feeding in to their totalizer. The final figures will prove how mendacious the BBC were – but by the time those are available the results will have slipped down the news agenda. It is about news management.