Anyone who ever watched “Yes Minister” will know that pressure groups only commission surveys and studies when they are happy that the results will be to their satisfaction, so it’s easy to dismiss today’s report on congestion-charging, which was commissioned by the pro-charging lobby United City.
United City is led by Ken Knott of Ask Developments, who is of course a huge Labour donor.
It may well be that the Jerram report is something of an own goal for United City in any case, given that the main conclusion appears to be “more spin required”:
He said the key to winning over public opinion was finding a `charismatic spokesman’ to explain the benefits.
That phrase could have come straight out of the Labour Party manual - remember kids, the people are always wrong and they just need a little more persuasion!
Update: It gets better… Leif Jerram was also the Labour Party candidate for Withington ward in Manchester in this year’s local elections - so this is a report commissioned and paid for by a Labour donor and completed by a Labour candidate and activist. It really isn’t worth the paper it is written on.
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