Bogus claim about Labour made the front page, but neutrality breaks out when it's Osborne
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has crunched the numbers and says George Osborne’s budget will leave 3 million people on average £1000 a year worse off.
This and other findings by the IFS have been covered by the Tory press – who apparently feel no shame at having trumpeted the same budget just 24 hours ago.
But there was another story a few months ago which was treated very differently.
The Times newspaper ran a front page story on Friday, April 24, claiming a Labour government would mean £1000 more tax for ‘every working family’. (Click to enlarge.)
Just over a week later, on May 2, the paper admitted this was completely wrong.
It ran a correction, and on June 19 was forced by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) to run the correction on its front page.
So a false and baseless claim – disproved even in the original story, as the correction makes clear – was plastered on the front of the former newspaper of record weeks before the election.
But when families are actually facing a £1000 raid on their bank balances, its just one story among many in the budget coverage.
As with Osborne’s aping of Ed Miliband’s pledge to abolish non-dom status, the difference in coverage reveals the party bias of British newspapers.
Today’s Times even has a cartoon with George Osborne dressed as the claymation character Wallace, with a naked Miliband in the background – Osborne has ‘stolen Labour’s clothes’.
But is that a good thing? Does the Times support any policy, even Labour policies, if they are brought in by the Conservative party?
Adam Barnett is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow MediaWatch on Twitter
Read more:
Times runs ‘Labour’s £1,000 tax on families’ correction on front page after IPSO ruling
Tory press shirks its duty and waves pom-poms for Osborne’s budget
Sign up for our weekly email by clicking here.
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.
15 Responses to “The Times ran false ‘£1000 on families’ story. Now it’s true, where are the headlines?”
blarg1987
It does however torpedo mobility, for example, those who are retraining, due to loosing a job and can only get part time work etc.
I agree the system is not perfect however the policy has been poorly thought through.
damon
I agree it’s pretty crap all around. Our society is very unfair and unequal.
Just look at how much train and tube fares are. For poorer people they are impossibly expensive, but for richer people not a problem at all. That’s unfair.
But, welfare dependency does have harmful effects on society.
The places that have highest rates of people receiving welfare and be chronically dysfunctional too. The black ghettos in American cities for example.
Or similar places in the UK. Did Mark Duggan – small time gangster, shot by the police – ever have a job in his life? The places most effected by the riots that broke out after his death were ones where there was high youth unemployment.
They were people who will not do the jobs that a million eastern European immigrants have come and found here quite easily.
So for the good of society, I can see how government does have to try to prod society in the direction that it sees as better. The tax credit thing has got out of hand a bit. It was only introduced by Gordon Brown, so is quite a new phenomenon.
I still hate Tories though.
Patrick Nelson
Yes bring back Lord Norberg.
blarg1987
The only alternative, is to offload liability onto the private sector and give them a good kicking.
Years ago companies use to do apprenticeships after kids left school to train them in specific roles, nowadays those said companies demand government give them ready trained people that can work on the floor on day one, so they do not have to train them themselves.
A step in the right direction would be the more support companies expect of the taxpayer the higher the taxes they will pay or the state should get a stake in said company as compensation.
Would infuriate industry’s a few people would loose their bonuses, and is unlikely to happen as MP’s would loose potential none executive directorships after they leave politics.
damon
Yes, I don’t have a problem with that.
A capitalist society is far from ideal, as it works for private profit not for the interests of the citizens. But it’s what we’ve got and we’ve just voted the Tories back in because more people don’t trust the likes of Miliband etc.
There is some logic in the conservative idea of people making and effort and receiving the rewards they have earned. Too much of the Labour mentality would allow people to put all the blame for their failure on others.
Just look how so many of our children squander the opportunity of education that they are given. While kids in Africa are doing their homework under candlelight.
I’ve never understood how we can produce such an uneducated society when everyone gets years of free schooling. I wasted mine a bit too though.
Tax credits were being misued by some. with people only working up to the maximum number of hours they needed to qualify. Maybe they had good reason to only work part time though. Whether it was all they could find or because they needed the rest of time with their children or studying or whatever. But thirty billion is a heck of a lot.