Sun’s ‘93% medics favour private NHS’ ‘poll’ as real as Corbyn cenotaph-dance

So, a Sun (henceforth Scum) article claims that a ‘poll’ shows that 93% of medics would favour privatisation of the NHS if it meant a big pay-packet for them. I won’t link to that rag, but here’s a (censored) snapshot:

To those only bothering to glance, it would appear damning of junior doctors. Anything more than that, however, suggests that this ‘poll’ is as made-up as the Scum’s infamous ‘Corbyn dancing to the Cenotaph’ claim:

First of all, the Scum does not link to the ‘poll’, which would be standard practice for any legitimate poll. The phrasing of a poll question is everything, so to keep it out of sight strongly suggests that it either doesn’t exist at all or, if it does, that the question was phrased in an extremely leading or loaded way.

For example, if the question was,

If the NHS was privatised, would you still work in it for a minimum £100,000pa salary?

Then the vast majority of medics would of course answer yes – they’ve trained for years to become medics so, if they don’t want to emigrate, what else would they do?

Secondly, the person who supposedly ran the “secret questionnaire” is not a pollster – nor even a named individual. Instead it’s

Riiighht…

Thirdly, it’s extremely doubtful that ‘a medic from Hull’ would have a way to run “a secret questionnaire” on that scale. You could post something on Facebook or an online forum, but to reach 9,500 doctors and keep it secret? Nah.

Fourth, the ‘poll’ also claims that, while 88% would support further strike action, 72% would accept the government’s new contract. I know liars need good memories, but this lie can’t even stay consistent for a couple of paragraphs.

Clearly this is just a pathetic attempt to erode public confidence in, and support for, junior doctors in the most patently transparent way imaginable. What a surprise.

Of course, if any Scum ‘journalists’ want to challenge this by providing the actual poll so it can be properly examined, this writer will be more than happy to take a look.

But I won’t be holding my breath – or dancing to the Cenotaph with Jeremy Corbyn.

Postscript: Kristian Niemietz, of right-wing think-tank The Institute of Economic Affairs, published a whole article about what the article says about the supposed motives of junior doctors and the validity of private healthcare, with the Scum article as his only source reference.

Oops – especially when he lists a huge number of qualifications after his name, so clearly cares about being taken seriously.

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