Archive for the ‘Opinion Polls’ Category
Watch Out! – Dodgy Survey Suggests “Most Northern Ireland Catholics want to remain in UK”
This Irish News headline caught my eye on the way to work this morning – “Most Catholics Want to Stay in the UK : Poll”.
A table on page 7 suggests a huge swing against a United Ireland among Catholics between the years 1998 and 2010 –
support for “staying part of the UK” rose from 19 to 52 per cent, while “Reunify with the Rest of Ireland” slumped from 49 per cent to 33 per cent.
Readers of this site know that we respect polls based on credible scientific research – how does this poll stand up?
Very badly is the blunt answer. Read the rest of this entry »
Opinion Polls – All Saying the Same Thing?
Reading this article is refreshing –
http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/02/09/ah-these-polls-you-bring-us-surprisingly-consistent/
if you check out various articles on the political reform.ie site – for example :
You will see that most analysts who have studied statistics agree that the variation in reliable polls is within the margin of error.
Hindsight usually brings us close to perfection, we get the benefit of 20-20 vision.