What's a reporter to do when presented with set of figures to work with? You can't spin the objective, can you? Of course you can, and it's so easy that we can miss it when it's done:
"FEWER than a third of Scots support independence, while almost half want to stay in the UK"
(The Scotsman) .
Crikey! Almost a half.
Hang on. "Almost" a half? That's not enough, is it? Not in a two horse race. How about:
"ALMOST a third of Scots support independence, while fewer than half want to stay in the UK"
(Nowhere).
Genuinely, particularly as the movement in this series of polls was away from the no side, is not the noteworthy fact that fewer than 50% of Scots want to stay in the UK?
Now, of course, that would be misleading too, for a different reason but it would be consistent with the constant refrain that "less than a third" want independence. That suggests 70% oppose it. We know we are in a two horse race so if you are using the polls as a predictor of the outcome you have to strip out the don't knows. That gives the yes side around 41%, before you start wondering whether the don't knows are likely to fall on one side rather than the other. Only a few points more and it'd be "nearly half" in anyone's language.
Game on, I'd say.
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