Thursday, 27 May 2010

I Don't Somehow Think So

Mike Smithson, Political Betting, has a post with a diagramatic representation of how the public views the Lib/Lab/Con parties.

I have to disagree, most strongly, with the 'findings' of the diagram when they show the Tories as 'extreme', the Lib/Dems as having "interests of people like us" (at heart). On the opposite side, what is true is the 'findings' for the Labour Party!

The diagram from Ipsos/Mori is misleading in that there is so much with which those three parties agree that means the 'rings' merge. Consider, as examples: membership of the EU, state control over people and the fact that they all agree people can only have the freedoms that they, the political elite, decide.

I often wonder whether opinion pollsters frame their questions to provide the answers that the political parties want. Tad like the media really, who I am sure only write that which they believe their 'sources' will wish to read!

1 comment:

Mrs Rigby said...

I don't agree with the survey results either, but PB goes on to say that,
"Ipsos-MORI... does ask the same points in the same manner consistently over the years and it is possible to track changing perceptions"

It'd be interesting to backtrack a bit, and see those changing perceptions.