Government manipulation of economic agenda is lesson in manufacturing consent

The recent trumpeting of economic success has been easily achieved due to a backdrop of lowered expectations in the media. Chancellor George Osborne has failed even by his own criteria to revive the economy but due to the avalanche of rhetoric about austerity, he has been able to claim success. Thus the miniscule 0.6 per cent growth rise in the last quarter once set against the rhetoric of austerity can be claimed as success. It rings rather hollow ofcourse for those people struggling by with rising fuel and food bills, frozen wages and reduced benefits. It is these people that need their voices heard, amid a media manipulation that approaches a master class in manufacturing consent.