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MORI Finds BBC Public Consultation "Not A Reliable Guide To Public Opinion"
A MORI report commissioned by major UK commercial broadcasters has shown today that the BBC's public consultation on its proposed new digital services is "clearly not representative of the public in any meaningful sense and cannot be considered a reliable measurement of public opinion."
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Spinning Out Of Control
The mightiest spin doctor of our time has now spun out of control. Peter Mandelson's lost the plot, and is now doing himself more damage than he is his party, his colleagues, his Prime Minister. A tragedy of our time.
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Scientists Believe Public Needs To Know About What Their Research Means For Society
Nine in ten scientists believe that the public needs to know about the social and ethical implications of scientific research, according to a new study from biomedical research charity the Wellcome Trust.
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Fly Away Peter
Peter Mandelson's resignation last week was an embarrassment to the government, and naturally led to much speculation that the government is acquiring a sleazy image that will damage it at the election. Two polls conducted since the resignation have explored this. Unfortunately the reporting of the second of these, an NOP poll for the Channel 4 programme Powerhouse, has misinterpreted its findings and perhaps as a consequence its implications.
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Political Attitudes in Great Britain for January 2001
Q1 How would you vote if there were a General Election tomorrow?
[If undecided or refused at Q1]
Q2 Which party are you most inclined to support?
Base: 2,083 -
The Polls In 2000
An editorial in the Daily Telegraph last month (5 December) suggested that MORI's polls in The Times systematically under-represent Conservative strength, and further that this is because they are conducted face-to-face rather than by telephone. The article cited several arguments in support of its case which were based on factual errors. We wrote to the paper correcting these errors, but it failed to publish our letter. It is not true as they alleged that face-to-face polls tend to find lower Conservative support than telephone polls. Nor is it true that MORI's polls find systematically lower Conservative support than those of the other polling companies. But since some of these misconceptions seem to be widespread, and the Telegraph was only echoing the wishful thinking which seems to be still entrenched in some corners of Conservative Central Office, it is perhaps time for a systematic review of the evidence, taking the whole of the year 2000 as our basis.
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Political Polling In Britain - The History
Dr Henry Durant, the man who introduced opinion polling to Britain, once described it as "the stupidest of professions" - for who else is stupid enough to publish a prediction on Thursday morning that may be proved wrong on Thursday evening?