Gordon Brown's public consultation on nuclear power is being fixed by the market research company carrying out the polling.
Channel 4 News reported tonight that twenty "senior academics" will be writing to the Government as they believe that the process was "deliberately skewed" and participants were "misled". Dr Paul Dorfman, a senior research fellow at the University of Warwick, said that questions put to the public were "framed in a particularly ambiguous way in order to get a particular answer". And someone involved in the process, who wished to remain anonymous, said they felt the Government's view was "bludgeoned" into the heads of the participants.
Polling carried out by Opinion Leader Research (OLR) contained deliberately misleading and factually inaccurate information and asked participants leading questions. As a result, Greenpeace has made an official complaint to the Market Research Standards Board.
OLR, who have pocketed millions of pounds worth of contracts from the Government, are now facing the possibility of an investigation by the official trade body.
An investigation could derail the Government's consultation on nuclear power, a process which they are legally obliged to carry out before building new nuclear power stations.
Earlier this year, Greenpeace won a High Court ruling which overturned an earlier consultation on nuclear power. Mr Justice Sullivan called the first consultation "manifestly unfair" and "unlawful", adding that it was "seriously flawed" and "manifestly inadequate" because insufficient information had been made available by the Government for participants to make an "intelligent response".
Greenpeace lawyers are now examining the possibility of going back to court to challenge the second consultation.
The polling took place at a number of venues around the UK on 8 September, when selected members of the public were asked their views on nuclear power. One document given to attendees claimed that an advantage of nuclear power is that "it is substantially cheaper than wind generation". Yet the Government's own figures from the Energy White Paper published in 2003 show the exact opposite.
Some participants apparently saw through the Government consultation; one contacted Greenpeace to say that she "left the event in Edinburgh feeling furious with the government's blatant marketing of nuclear power" and the "participants of 'Talking Energy' were pushed up against a wall so they had no choice but to support a new generation of nuclear power plants".
John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace, said: "This so-called consultation on nuclear power is a complete charade designed to push through the Prime Minister's pre-ordained policy on nuclear power.
"When Brown became PM, he said he wanted a new and different kind of conversation with the public. It's now clear that this self-styled conversation consists of a bullying monologue based on shockingly skewed information."
Greenpeace and other environmental groups pulled out of the consultation a fortnight ago, calling it a "sham". They have today been followed by the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS).
PCS union opposes any Government proposals to build another generation of nuclear power stations in the UK and believes the Government should be pursuing renewable energy as a legitimate option for UK's energy needs.
PCS assistant general secretary Chris Baugh said: "It is clear that the government is determined to push ahead with new nuclear power regardless of what people in this country think. The only conclusion we can draw is that the government‘s only concern is pandering to the multi-million pound nuclear lobby and ensuring they meet the timescales of the private companies that stand to benefit from contracts to build new nuclear power stations."
For more information contact the Greenpeace press office: 020 7865 8255.
You can see the full Greenpeace complaint and the letter from the Edinburgh participant here.
