Why did the media and police lie so readily 07:20 - Sep 17 with 5940 views | onceablue | Lie about the number of people on the Unite the Kingdom rally Police say 110,000 on the Unite the Kingdom rally We took 5,000 to Preston the other week. According to the Police that means there were only 22x more people on the rally. There was quite clearly between 500,000 to a 1,000,000 people on that protest The Police lied because they, the media and the Government want to play down the feeling of the Country at the moment |  | | |  |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:37 - Sep 17 with 909 views | Swansea_Blue |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:34 - Sep 17 by BlueNomad | I think the correct assessment of numbers in that march is “too many.” In fact just one right wing racist bigot is one too many. [Post edited 17 Sep 10:35]
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Yeah, my first thought that it’s a bit academic and misses the point. ‘Worryingly large’ should be sufficient. It’s still not unreasonable to be expected to back up sensationalist claims though. This thread’s gone a bit weird. |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:40 - Sep 17 with 875 views | monkeymagic | Leeds would have taken more. |  | |  |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:42 - Sep 17 with 852 views | wkj |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:37 - Sep 17 by Swansea_Blue | Yeah, my first thought that it’s a bit academic and misses the point. ‘Worryingly large’ should be sufficient. It’s still not unreasonable to be expected to back up sensationalist claims though. This thread’s gone a bit weird. |
This is kind of the normality of the world now, sadly. Political power is not won with manifestos any more, but with divisionism and making others look more terrible than one's self. One thing that gets my goat about the immigration situation right now is the amount of energy and resources being put into fighting with one another in the same environment rather than putting pressure on governments to do their bit to help stabilise areas that people are fleeing from. |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:45 - Sep 17 with 834 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:42 - Sep 17 by wkj | This is kind of the normality of the world now, sadly. Political power is not won with manifestos any more, but with divisionism and making others look more terrible than one's self. One thing that gets my goat about the immigration situation right now is the amount of energy and resources being put into fighting with one another in the same environment rather than putting pressure on governments to do their bit to help stabilise areas that people are fleeing from. |
The problem with manifestos was that there was never any obligation to stick to them once elected (which does make sense because situations are always changing). It is disappointing how much more politics has become about personality and image and how much that has become attacking the character of the opposition. |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:46 - Sep 17 with 835 views | WeWereZombies |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:07 - Sep 17 by waveneyblue | I really must get on with work. As usual, we are now going down the road of, "nobody shuts anyone down", "we are just debating"... You all carry on the good fight, its you guys that make this forum the place it is. Which isnt a compliment by the way. Have a good day. |
That's alright, I'm not fishing for compliments (even these days they are rare on this forum but compared to the bear pit it was fifteen or so years ago it is reasonably tranquil and they do happen.) But I do like to hear other opinions, especially if they can be put cogently and with civility. |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:48 - Sep 17 with 826 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 09:55 - Sep 17 by waveneyblue | Or a desire to shut down any opinion you dont agree with. Same thing in your book I guess. |
Have a look at the OP again. It's not "opinion", it's stated as fact. It's also demonstrably nonsense that there were a million people on the march. This is what you lot do in order to spread lies and misinformation - frame it as 'only opinions you don't agree with'. No. I'll listen to anyone's opinion. I will attempt to shut show lies and BS though. Every fücking time. And I make no apologies for it. We are in a post-truth world and I'm sick of it. |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:50 - Sep 17 with 801 views | wkj |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:45 - Sep 17 by Nthsuffolkblue | The problem with manifestos was that there was never any obligation to stick to them once elected (which does make sense because situations are always changing). It is disappointing how much more politics has become about personality and image and how much that has become attacking the character of the opposition. |
It is why I call it Reality TV politics. Being "voted off the island" became massive in entertainment so some bright sparks honed in on that for social debate - and here we are. |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:51 - Sep 17 with 804 views | redrickstuhaart |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:48 - Sep 17 by The_Flashing_Smile | Have a look at the OP again. It's not "opinion", it's stated as fact. It's also demonstrably nonsense that there were a million people on the march. This is what you lot do in order to spread lies and misinformation - frame it as 'only opinions you don't agree with'. No. I'll listen to anyone's opinion. I will attempt to shut show lies and BS though. Every fücking time. And I make no apologies for it. We are in a post-truth world and I'm sick of it. |
Exactly. He also indulges in what is known as the motte and bailey fallacy. You make a big headline declaration which is unsupportable and then retreat to easier ground when challenged. But the big headline based on misinformation is still the bit that's most visible and gets remembered. Interestingly, it's something Kirk used to do.... |  | |  | Login to get fewer ads
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:56 - Sep 17 with 763 views | wkj |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:46 - Sep 17 by WeWereZombies | That's alright, I'm not fishing for compliments (even these days they are rare on this forum but compared to the bear pit it was fifteen or so years ago it is reasonably tranquil and they do happen.) But I do like to hear other opinions, especially if they can be put cogently and with civility. |
Oh, by the way. I appreciate you, especially your excellent contributions to No Wood. |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 11:03 - Sep 17 with 733 views | DanTheMan |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:08 - Sep 17 by Swansea_Blue | Are you saying I may not have an 11 inch ‘thingy’? FWIW, estimates indicate the crowd for the Queen’s funeral may have reached 1 million and was one of the largest ever seen in London. People can look at the pictures of the 2 events and draw their own conclusions). [Post edited 17 Sep 10:15]
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Whilst they can, they'll be really bad at it unless the pictures are in the same place and taken at the same angle, from the same distance. We are absolutely rubbish at estimating the number of things above a handful of items. That's why the "guess the number of things in the jars" game is quite difficult. You're right though, elsewhere in the thread when you said either way it was a lot of people although that does make the OP basically pointless in of itself. |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 11:11 - Sep 17 with 701 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:45 - Sep 17 by Nthsuffolkblue | The problem with manifestos was that there was never any obligation to stick to them once elected (which does make sense because situations are always changing). It is disappointing how much more politics has become about personality and image and how much that has become attacking the character of the opposition. |
Whilst all parties break their manifesto promises, I read years ago an article showing the Tories had lied 4 times more than Labour in theirs. I'm sure Farage could challenge that record, but I hope he never gets the chance! |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 11:13 - Sep 17 with 687 views | WeWereZombies |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:56 - Sep 17 by wkj | Oh, by the way. I appreciate you, especially your excellent contributions to No Wood. |
Why, thank you, very kind. I do hope you managed to shift those troublesome hedge trimmings in the end. [Post edited 17 Sep 11:17]
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 11:13 - Sep 17 with 686 views | BanksterDebtSlave |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 09:04 - Sep 17 by blueasfook | Hear Hear! *waves papers* |
Mail and Express? |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 11:30 - Sep 17 with 603 views | leitrimblue |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 09:09 - Sep 17 by blueasfook | I think the point he is making is the abuse and condescending sniping mainly comes from one specific group of posters on here. He's not wrong. |
Man the feck up soldier! You've got a culture war to fight. |  | |  |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 11:31 - Sep 17 with 605 views | Guthrum | Lets have a look at this scientifically. Take a view like this one, of Stamford St and the roundabout on Waterloo Rd. https://na.cx/i/v0QYceS.webp The roundabout is approx 75m by 100m, less the 45m square for the thing in the middle. The bit of Stamford St in shot is 20m wide by about 400m long. That gives a total of 13,500 square metres, more or less. You could fit a maximum of 6 people in a square metre (shoulder to shoulder, hard up against the person in front. Beyond that, you're into suffocation levels. Most likely to be half that figure, or fewer, given they needed room to walk, wave flags and so on. So at absolute tops, there would be 81,000 people in that shot. More likely 30 or 40 thousand. I'd guess whoever took that picture wanted to get most of the crowd in. If it stretched much further they'd have moved the angle a bit to get more of them. Anyway, assuming there were a few thousand people coming along the road out of shot and an equal number marching on the northern route, then it would give an estimated range for total crowd size of 100k to 200k. There would need to have been five to ten times as many other people hiding somewhere to have got close to one million, let alone three. This shot shows a very similar area, thus about the same number of people. https://img.inform.kz/kazinform-photobank/media/2025-09-14/60266956-d278-4dce-a2 In conclusion, the police estimate of 110k is fairly likely to be correct, but there may have been up to double that taking part. |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 11:33 - Sep 17 with 588 views | Trequartista | I don’t think you can say anyone lied if no-one has much of a clue what the real number is. The police and left media will go with the lowest estimate and the organisers and right media will go with the highest one. I have managed to disagree with you without calling you a bigot/ troll / fascist though so that’s progress. |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 11:56 - Sep 17 with 519 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 11:33 - Sep 17 by Trequartista | I don’t think you can say anyone lied if no-one has much of a clue what the real number is. The police and left media will go with the lowest estimate and the organisers and right media will go with the highest one. I have managed to disagree with you without calling you a bigot/ troll / fascist though so that’s progress. |
Why would the police go with the lowest estimate? What is their motivation? Surely, they would gain from over-estimating the numbers if anything as that would suggest they did a better job and justified their own numbers policing it. |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 12:22 - Sep 17 with 454 views | wkj |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 11:13 - Sep 17 by WeWereZombies | Why, thank you, very kind. I do hope you managed to shift those troublesome hedge trimmings in the end. [Post edited 17 Sep 11:17]
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Hazlewood lives on, but I now have a mule I can shove my gear on to when the wood becomes too much in the back. |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 12:34 - Sep 17 with 426 views | waveneyblue |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 10:48 - Sep 17 by The_Flashing_Smile | Have a look at the OP again. It's not "opinion", it's stated as fact. It's also demonstrably nonsense that there were a million people on the march. This is what you lot do in order to spread lies and misinformation - frame it as 'only opinions you don't agree with'. No. I'll listen to anyone's opinion. I will attempt to shut show lies and BS though. Every fücking time. And I make no apologies for it. We are in a post-truth world and I'm sick of it. |
"You lot" Can you please explain what you mean by this. Thank you |  | |  |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 12:34 - Sep 17 with 426 views | eireblue |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 11:31 - Sep 17 by Guthrum | Lets have a look at this scientifically. Take a view like this one, of Stamford St and the roundabout on Waterloo Rd. https://na.cx/i/v0QYceS.webp The roundabout is approx 75m by 100m, less the 45m square for the thing in the middle. The bit of Stamford St in shot is 20m wide by about 400m long. That gives a total of 13,500 square metres, more or less. You could fit a maximum of 6 people in a square metre (shoulder to shoulder, hard up against the person in front. Beyond that, you're into suffocation levels. Most likely to be half that figure, or fewer, given they needed room to walk, wave flags and so on. So at absolute tops, there would be 81,000 people in that shot. More likely 30 or 40 thousand. I'd guess whoever took that picture wanted to get most of the crowd in. If it stretched much further they'd have moved the angle a bit to get more of them. Anyway, assuming there were a few thousand people coming along the road out of shot and an equal number marching on the northern route, then it would give an estimated range for total crowd size of 100k to 200k. There would need to have been five to ten times as many other people hiding somewhere to have got close to one million, let alone three. This shot shows a very similar area, thus about the same number of people. https://img.inform.kz/kazinform-photobank/media/2025-09-14/60266956-d278-4dce-a2 In conclusion, the police estimate of 110k is fairly likely to be correct, but there may have been up to double that taking part. |
Yeah that’s just an opinion nowadays…. I am off to the bank now, to withdraw my 5 million pounds, apparently he has a different opinion on how much I have, but will soon sort that out… |  | |  |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 13:14 - Sep 17 with 347 views | LeoMuff |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 09:45 - Sep 17 by DanTheMan | Human beings are really, really bad at estimating large numbers, especially by sight. Really, our brains are just bad with large numbers. |
Great quote in that article “if I had to guess from my eye I would say 1.5m” how on earth can you see from ground level and estimate that, a complete impossibility. If the express are saying 80000 then surely it’s that or lower. |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 14:17 - Sep 17 with 219 views | Trequartista |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 11:56 - Sep 17 by Nthsuffolkblue | Why would the police go with the lowest estimate? What is their motivation? Surely, they would gain from over-estimating the numbers if anything as that would suggest they did a better job and justified their own numbers policing it. |
I don’t have any evidence as to why, I’m just saying they’ve chosen the lowest (110k) of the ranges I’ve seen. |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 14:28 - Sep 17 with 178 views | redrickstuhaart |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 14:17 - Sep 17 by Trequartista | I don’t have any evidence as to why, I’m just saying they’ve chosen the lowest (110k) of the ranges I’ve seen. |
They said 110. Express 80. Other sources less. When will people start thinking critically and fact checking for themselves? |  | |  |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 14:28 - Sep 17 with 175 views | Mullet |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 14:28 - Sep 17 by redrickstuhaart | They said 110. Express 80. Other sources less. When will people start thinking critically and fact checking for themselves? |
Saw 3 million on twitter though bruv |  |
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Why did the media and police lie so readily on 14:31 - Sep 17 with 163 views | Pendejo |
Why did the media and police lie so readily on 11:31 - Sep 17 by Guthrum | Lets have a look at this scientifically. Take a view like this one, of Stamford St and the roundabout on Waterloo Rd. https://na.cx/i/v0QYceS.webp The roundabout is approx 75m by 100m, less the 45m square for the thing in the middle. The bit of Stamford St in shot is 20m wide by about 400m long. That gives a total of 13,500 square metres, more or less. You could fit a maximum of 6 people in a square metre (shoulder to shoulder, hard up against the person in front. Beyond that, you're into suffocation levels. Most likely to be half that figure, or fewer, given they needed room to walk, wave flags and so on. So at absolute tops, there would be 81,000 people in that shot. More likely 30 or 40 thousand. I'd guess whoever took that picture wanted to get most of the crowd in. If it stretched much further they'd have moved the angle a bit to get more of them. Anyway, assuming there were a few thousand people coming along the road out of shot and an equal number marching on the northern route, then it would give an estimated range for total crowd size of 100k to 200k. There would need to have been five to ten times as many other people hiding somewhere to have got close to one million, let alone three. This shot shows a very similar area, thus about the same number of people. https://img.inform.kz/kazinform-photobank/media/2025-09-14/60266956-d278-4dce-a2 In conclusion, the police estimate of 110k is fairly likely to be correct, but there may have been up to double that taking part. |
I read something similar to your explanation the other day relating to the higher end guestimates from Mr. Yaxley Lennon, which worked out that to have that number the tail of the march would have been in Deptford a few miles away. Or another that showed aerial footage of Glastonbury where numbers can be more accurately stated... |  |
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