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EU Referendum: a Google-assisted Poll

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    EU Referendum: a Google-assisted Poll

    OK so I got bored of reading all the biased tulip in the mainstream press, it seems to be pretty much all what big businesses and the Tories want you to hear i.e. "It's about 50/50 leave/reamain according to some poll".

    I looked for EU related stories on the BBC (Impartial, right?) news website, where you could leave comments. This was a simple Google search of:

    >> "All posts are reactively" inurl:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum

    This returned a grand total of 2(!) results, so BBC is only allowing comments on a couple of news stories ahead of one of the biggest political decisions in decades. Out of interest, there are 591 EU referendum articles in total just searching on the URL alone.

    I then took a look at the comments sections (Sorted by popularity, naturally) of these two articles (an extra one is on todays front page, not sure why it's not indexed) :

    Iain Duncan Smith: EU favours 'haves over the have-nots' (2080 Comments)
    EU referendum: Cameron says UK exit could put peace at risk (4008 Comments)
    EU referendum: PM 'makes no apology' for £9m EU leaflets (3973 Comments)

    A cursory scan (Pro/Anti Brexit, and number of up votes) revealed:

    IDS Story: Pro 799, Pro 572, Pro 462, Pro 435, Pro 433, Pro 415, Pro 397, Pro 369, Pro 361, Pro 359
    Peace at Risk Story: 968, 928, 897, 798, 746, 675, 638, 628, 607, 584 (All Pro-Exit)
    No Apology Story: 898, 797, 720, 681, 628, 617, 558, 553, 466, 395 (All Pro-Exit)

    Now I know this is completely unscientific, and only searched 3 stories on one news site*, but what surprised me was the overwhelming support for a Brexit (Typically the number of downvotes on these highest rated comments was <10% of the upvotes.)

    *feel free to do the same experiment elsewhere.

    This could either be some very serious mass-trolling/shill voting? by Pro-Exit campaigners using hundreds of fake BBC accounts, on three news stories..

    Or it could demonstrate a much stronger Exit sentiment amongst the British public than the mainstream media would have you believe. Also just how impartial the BBC is and not in any way controlled by DC and his corporate cronies. What are the odds the comments sections on them three stories above suddenly 'disappear' from the internet?

    Either way I'll raise a glass to the imminent exit of GB from the EU!
    Last edited by rl4engc; 10 May 2016, 15:53.
    Originally posted by Nigel Farage MEP - 2016-06-24 04:00:00
    "I hope this victory brings down this failed project and leads us to a Europe of sovereign nation states, trading together, being friends together, cooperating together, and let's get rid of the flag, the anthem, Brussels, and all that has gone wrong."

    #2
    no they won't be that stupid AssGuru & MasterBates will learn em.

    If we vote leave there will be another vote until we vote correctly.
    Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by vetran View Post
      no they won't be that stupid AssGuru & MasterBates will learn em.

      If we vote leave there will be another vote until we vote correctly.
      True, isn't that what they did to the poor Irish voters a few years back, kept repeating the vote until they got so sick of it they finally agreed...

      Comment


        #4
        Just trying to get more news sources before I finish, The Independent don't allow sorting on popularity.

        But the jist of it is this:

        1) Google any EU Referendum news story (that's not on strongerin.co.uk or whatever)
        2) Head to the article, ignore everything in it and go to the comments section (need ones with hundreds of comments, ideally allow sorting on popularity - this is where I'm coming unstuck.)
        3) Popular posts will always be Pro-Exit.

        The added slant is that a hell of a lot of people want DC out now, even if it means Boris in. An exit vote is a very quick way to achieve just that.
        Originally posted by Nigel Farage MEP - 2016-06-24 04:00:00
        "I hope this victory brings down this failed project and leads us to a Europe of sovereign nation states, trading together, being friends together, cooperating together, and let's get rid of the flag, the anthem, Brussels, and all that has gone wrong."

        Comment


          #5
          The comments sections of any articles on any website are full of the racist, mentally ill, unemployed and undereducated.
          They shout the loudest.
          The vast majority of people are too busy at work to post comments.

          HTH, BIDI
          Hard Brexit now!
          #prayfornodeal

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by sasguru View Post
            The comments sections of any articles on any website are full of the racist, mentally ill, unemployed and undereducated.

            HTH, BIDI

            so politicians then

            please don`t publish "unemployed" it`s trademarked

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by sasguru View Post
              The comments sections of any articles on any website are full of the racist, mentally ill, unemployed and undereducated. ...
              Have to agree with that as far as it applies to most commenters on UK newspaper online articles such as the Telegraph and the Daily Mail, a real bunch of ignorant loud-mouthed opinionated deadbeats.

              But commenters, in other sites like the Spectator site, or order-order, or (sometimes) ZeroHedge, can be perceptive and informative and often laugh-out-loud funny.

              (and, yes I'm all too aware that many ZeroHedge commenters, and even some article writers, are certifiable - The trick is to skim the comments and break off from any that contain the words "bankster", "Jew", and a few other words, and ignore the epically long comments as those are bound to be lunatic ravings!)
              Work in the public sector? Read the IR35 FAQ here

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by sasguru View Post
                The comments sections of any articles on any website are full of the racist, mentally ill, unemployed and undereducated.
                They shout the loudest.
                The vast majority of people are too busy at work to post comments.

                HTH, BIDI
                Does that include CUK?.

                Comment


                  #9
                  I'm not sure there is any scientifically valid method in which you can gauge public opinion based on what sort of comments are being left on news articles.

                  My perception is that Brexiters certainly seem to be more vociferous and good a shouting loudly but that doesn't mean it will translate into a result at the polls.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I'm afraid this is nonsense. It's a self-selecting sample and, therefore, statistically invalid, i.e. you cannot readily extrapolate to a larger population, at least without knowing something about the confounding mechanism and accounting for it. In simple terms, people commenting on EU articles generally have very strong opinions about the EU, one way or another. The vast majority of the population are: meh.

                    Comment

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