I would quite like to make this a longer more detailed article where I may get paid for it because it's a very interesting concept... but getting paid for writing is VERY HARD. I'm opting to blast it out while it's fresh in my mind because it might benefit me and you anyway...
Coming up to the last week of the week of the referendum for the UK's membership of the EU most of the media were reporting about how practically all of the 'opinion polls' suggested the UK would remain in the EU. There was a lot of talk about 'opinion polls' in the lead up to the vote. As with the General Election, they were inaccurate.
Quick note on the validity of opinion polls. You can never rely on them too much. They take a relatively small sample, a few hundred people perhaps, and from their responses they try and predict how a WHOLE NATION will vote. There are 65 million people in the UK now and around 40 million voters. Each is different person with different views.
It's far better to look at the actual results of past elections. In the last EU elections UKIP got more votes than any other party. They also got 4 million votes in the last general election. The Conservative party got the most votes in the last election and plenty of Tories are Eurosceptic. And a lot of Labour voters or voters in traditional 'Labour areas' are too. This suggests a lot of 'anti EU' feeling in the UK.
Anyway... why do I think a lot of the traditional 'TV' media at least was biased towards wanting or leading people to believe that a vote for remaining in the EU was best? Two main reasons I think. One... a lot of TV media such as ITV and Sky News are paid for by advertising... a lot from companies that would benefit from being in the EU like HSBC or LLoyds. Now it may be 'subconscious' and I wouldn't say it was blatantly overt but it isn't a good idea for these companies to annoy their paymasters. The BBC actually gets funding from the EU as well.
And perhaps the people in the traditional media are more likely to favour a Remain vote themselves. A lot of it is based in London which as a city voted to Remain. People are usually convinced that their own ideas are 'right'. It could well be a benefit to them personally if the UK remained in the EU. The FT was overtly in favour of Britain being in the EU and said that we would probably vote to Remain. Of course people like Peter Mandleson and others funded by the EU such as many MEPs are going to advocate a Remain view.
And have you noticed that once the result has been released the traditional or mainstream media has been quite... somber? In general you could describe the tone as worried.
Anyway... I'm doing poker at the same time so time to wrap this article up for now. A few key points- just because the mainstream media want something to be true doesn't mean that it is. Everyone is doing what they think is best for themselves- people will produce things to try and make you believe what they believe sometimes. It would have been better for me to trust my instincts and knowledge that the country was going to vote Leave and sold some of my shares accordingly.
Quick edit... I understand there are pros and cons of being in the EU... just feel that this concept is interesting to explore.
