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NEU Senior Regional Support Officer
Against the grain
SOLOMON HUGHES reveals a single man in Crewe led to a national story on Labour’s association with quinoa
Quinoa grains [Pom/Creative Commons]

Is Labour quinoa? This pointless question covered a Guardian column, as well as taking up a few bytes of space on other news websites. They claimed that “research” proved “swing voters” now associated Labour with quinoa, which the Guardian helpfully explained is a “fancy grain,” presumably because they don’t believe their readers ever look at the Guardian’s many quinoa-friendly food supplements.

“Political analysts,” the Guardian explained, discovered the quinoa-Labour link, proving Labour was in danger of becoming a middle-class party and losing its “traditional base.”

So how bad is Labour’s quinoa-danger? The threat was actually uncovered by a focus group of seven swing voters in Crewe “moderated” by Britain Thinks, an “insight and strategy consultancy” led by Deborah Mattinson.

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