PRESS EVENT
How dirty was the Election Ground War?
By The Straight Choice
Updated 30th April 2010
PRESS EVENT LIVERPOOL: Tuesday 4th May 2010 @ 12 noon
The Liverpool John Moores University’s Art and Design Academy for Reception
- Revealing which party ran the dirtiest election leaflet of the 2010 campaign – and who ran the best
- The results of a three-day open and public online judging competition for the best and worst at thestraightchoice.org
- American Indians, Paedophiles, Margaret Thatcher and more: the strange side of the 2010 elections.
Over the last few months, hundreds of volunteers have been collecting the debris of the election battle. They’ve painstakingly scanned and uploaded over 4000 election leaflets from all parties and all regions to www.thestraightchoice.org.
These leaflets are silent witnesses to the real fight over how we will be ruled. Not party leader debates, but deceitful bar charts. Not prime time TV broadcasts, but personal attacks on other candidates.
The Straight Choice will present a detailed analysis and a dissection of the tides of the four-week long war.
- Which constituency was carpet-bombed with leaflets, and where was there a tactical withdrawal?
- Whose picture was mysteriously missing from his own party’s leaflets?
- Theatres of war — immigration, pensions, free bus passes
- Clegg, Cameron and Brown in a mosaic of leaflets as big as the room (available in high resolution for distribution)
- Prizes for finest and most despicable leaflets
Julian Todd – Senior Civil Hacker says “These spent shells of the campaign were never meant to be seen online. We’ve left our cameras running, and on
Tuesday we can show the newsreel of the ground war.”
How the leaflets are being judged?
Political enthusiasts are being encouraged to test the political leaflets from all major parties. Users will mark the leaflets on positivity, quality, concentration on local issues – and whether or not the leaflets tell fibs and with a league table showing the results. You can join in online here.
Election Leaflet Analysis
About The Straight Choice – #thesc #ge10
The Straight Choice is a real-time election leaflet project founded in 2008. It presents a live visualization of the flood of party political leaflets as they are delivered across the country during an election campaign.
The name of the website is derived from a leaflet in the controversial by-election in Bermondsey in 1983 which has become the type specimen of accusations of dodgy campaigning. The project was founded by Richard Pope and Julian Todd, and is entirely run by volunteers.
For interview, comment or more info contact Aine McGuire on 07710 377929. To book a place at the event email: team@thestraightchoice.org
Twitter: @thesc
(Sponsored by ScraperWiki.com)
Awesome … the new face of people power now that political socialism is dead. What are plans for the site after the election? There’s so much dodgy dealing and publishing going on locally: any chance of local leaflet scrutiny?
Please please upload any local election leaflets you have! They’re my favourite kind, and don’t get the attention they deserve!
“There’s so much dodgy dealing and publishing going on locally: any chance of local leaflet scrutiny?”
Yea, a simple comments box for each leaflet would useful to point out any false claims – eg the Tory candidate in my area claims she lives in a run down part of the constituency (Riverside), while I know for a fact she lives in one of the poshest parts (Pontcanna).
Julian … misleading/manipulated messages in local leaflets aren’t always obvious even to locals. The above Riverside claim is a good example. How could/would/should such messages be identified?
I’ve been gathering election leaflets from all my neighbouring wards. My friends think I’m developing an obsessive compulsive disorder.
Thanks for the great tool, I’ve used it extensively at http://www.robdyke.com/bec
There will be plenty of time for scrutiny in the next five years in our own time. Right now it is imperative to collect and record every leaflet we can during the end-game of this election cycle.
Can we have a button for stock photography clangers? I’ve had one from the local labour team only this morning. http://www.robdyke.com/bec/2010/05/04/does-dawn-know-or-care-where-stonebridge-is/
Also, is the ‘Analyse’ competition still going? I got to ranking 6 before Analyse became Analysis….. I want the scraperwiki mug!
Hang on hang on. Do you know how buried under leaflets I am getting! We’re lucky anything is working at all. I’m sure next week everything will have calmed down.