Friday, May 18, 2007

New Deal: Iain Dale Refuses to Link to his Sources


Iain Dale has thrown out a statistic on New Deal without proper attribution or a link. He is being very self righteous and very rude about that. As someone commented I'm only asking for a link.

There is a chance the statistic is wrong, though not necessarily in a good way for Labour. It certainly is not complete. Fraser Nelson who cited it is a political commentator on the Spectator. His column is about how Gordon can (and surely will) win the next General Election.

Right: The secret Fraser Nelson link is HERE.

It is on the second page of the article which is, as I say, telling Gordon how to win the next General Election. Something Dale might have mentioned. He has pulled it right out of a context 95% of which is nothing to do with New Deal.

I'm not sure the figures for youth unemployment or NEETs - Nelson doesn't clearly say - was 14.5 now 14.6 are right. They may be too kind. Or if the number in this cohort has increased by around 23% (a detail too far for some people) they may correspond with Frank Field's statistics here.

Citing sources for statistics one relies on and providing links are not whims they are standards. Here are the links Iain, stick them in like a good chap. And give me a hattip.

UPDATE: Oh, alright then the careless Iain Dale post is HERE, added post-partum.

17 comments:

Liam Murray said...

Would be more interesting to discuss the issue (is the new deal value for money) than handbags at dawn over blogging etiquette and how said what to whom...

I await you impassioned defence of the New deal....

Anonymous said...

Chris Paul - Labour of love - more likely a fiction of a CJD infected ZaNuLabor supporter.

Chris Paul said...

Fair enough Liam ... but Iain is sooooo rude sometimes and sooooo careless.

I'm not sure I've got it in me to debate the New Deal. It was a good idea I guess. It has not quite been fully realised. Without it things might have been worse, or not.

It, like Labour, is not New anymore. Which is good.

Is that enough?

jailhouselawyer said...

Wow! You have got the ability to get up Iain Dale's and his sock puppets noses.

You need to let Technorati know that you have linked to his post as it does not register in Iain's blog reactions.

Liam Murray said...

The thing is Chris that outlook on the new deal is symptomatic of the whole theme of New Labour's approach to government. The 'worth a go, at least we tried, it may have been worse' school of thought.

The Tories may starved the NHS and deserved to lose office but Labour have increased funding by c.300% and got nothing like that sort of return in terms of the service. Perhaps the same could be said for the New Deal.

jailhouselawyer said...

Ignore that last bit as your update has now been recognised.

Chris Paul said...

The NHS is moot Liam. I can remember back 10 years there are massive improvements. Waiting lists, quality of buildings, number and cheerfulness (mostly) of workers.

There have been huge increases in wages not necessarily always directed to those who deserve it most. But they've held out on dentists. But of course PFI does take a big slice of the budgets.

Different reasons for DWP methinks. No real PFI. Dubious working practices, decisions and morale.

Jailhouse: thanks for watching the back.

Iain Dale said...

Sigh. I did not refuse to provide a link. I read the piece in The Spectator and cited the source. That may not be good enough for you, but there you go.

Why do you not write about anything original? Why do a high proportion of your stories just cite things that I have written and then go on to criticise them. Do you not have a mind of your own?

Andreas Paterson said...

Let us make a start with this little tidbit..

From this article despite the headline, it does reveal that:
1) The New Deal has helped 700,000 18 to 24-year-olds into work
2) Since 1997 the number of young people on unemployment benefits has fallen by well over 100,000.

Whatever figures Mr Nelson is probably compiled from an estimate and unlikely to have the same accuracy as the benefit claimant count. A single throway stat does not a convincing argument make.

Incidentally, on Iains blog, you are referred to as:
idiot x 2
political ignorance
knob jockey
pathetic
village idiot
Person with a weirdly inverted adoration of the Dale


Manchester is referred to as:
"A provicial(sic) shithole full of small minded bufoons"

A call of "steady on chaps" from Iain certainly wouldn't be amiss.

jailhouselawyer said...

Aha! The great man himself makes an appearance. All credit to you Chris, it's more than he has done on mine, at least under his own ID.

I note that the sock puppets are out again whenever anyone dares to criticise the great Dale. Sad really...

Geoff said...

ed, if you really are all of those people then can we get JHL to butcher a few to thin down the number of postings on this thread :-)

Chris Paul is just a moron and a troll. The only person I loathe on here is the axe-murderer.

May 18, 2007 1:48 PM

Chris Paul said...

They're marvellous. Every one of them. Dale only reads the blog when he's on it. Hence his egocentric misappreciation of his place here.

Thanks to Citizen Andreas for the stats and the compilation of all that is great and good about Tory muppet vocabulary when faced with a critique. What Manchester isn't is a place where Tories get any encouragement.

Old BE said...

So is the New Deal a success or not? Can't quite tell from your post (is that against netiquette?)

Wasn't there also a target to reduce youth unemployment by more than the total of youth unemployment?

ps I love Manchester

Andreas Paterson said...

Unity's post on the subject says things far better than I.

The general conclusion is that once you take into account demographic trends, yes, the New Deal has had an effect.

Chris Paul said...

Thanks Ed. The success or otherwise of the New Deal for Young People (as opposed to other parts of the New Deal) is moot.

My post isn't about the New Deal. It's about unattributed and rather vague statistics and about Iain's visitors and their hosts extreme rudeness.

Chris Paul said...

Thanks again Andreas. The MoT link seems excellent. I'll take a good look at it.

Old BE said...

The success or otherwise of the New Deal for Young People (as opposed to other parts of the New Deal) is moot.

So you aren't interested in whether the New Deal has worked or not? Why not - it's cost BILLIONS.

Has it worked or not?

Chris Paul said...

Yes ed, it's worked. See the Ministry of Truth link here. That was listed above in the same post that told everyone the nice names that Iain and his friends called me for asking for a link to the source of some dodgy and vague statistics. Charmers to a man.