Greenpeace blasts Opinion Leader over nuclear polls

UK-- Greenpeace has accused research firm Opinion Leader of “misleading” poll respondents in consultation meetings on the Government's plans to build new nuclear power stations.

The environmental group has lodged a complaint with the Market Research Standards Board, accusing Opinion Leader of numerous breaches of the body's code of conduct.

Greenpeace said: “Polling carried out by Opinion Leader contained deliberately misleading and factually inaccurate information and asked participants leading questions.”

Opinion Leader responded with a written statement saying: “We refute the points made in the complaint. We believe our work was carried out to the highest professional standards. Opinion Leader will co-operate fully with the MRS investigation.”

Separately, a group of twenty academics are writing to the Government criticising the consultation process. Dr Paul Dorfman, a University of Warwick expert on environmental policy and participatory democracy, told Channel 4 News: “These questions were framed in an ambiguous way, in order to get a particular answer.”

Greenpeace claims the materials prepared by Opinion Leader for the meetings gave a skewed and misleading view of issues such as the cost of nuclear power, its impact on the UK's carbon emissions, and the difficulties of dealing with nuclear waste.

The consultation, which involved nearly 1,000 participants at nine deliberative meetings across the country earlier this month, produced a result of 44% in favour of giving the Government the nuclear option, and 36% against.

Opinion Leader was hired for the work after the High Court ruled an earlier consultation unlawful, calling it “seriously flawed” and “manifestly unfair”. The Government is legally obliged to conduct consultation before building new nuclear power stations.

Greenpeace and other environmental groups were initially involved in the process, but pulled out earlier this month, calling it a “sham”. They were joined this week by the Public and Commercial Services Union.

A participant at the Edinburgh meeting wrote in a letter to Greenpeace: “The day-long event was not at all a consultation, but merely a sleek marketing ploy in which the only energy options presented to the (rather gullible) public were fossil fuels or nuclear.”

Author: Robert Bain

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