Those of a statistically nervous disposition should look away now

A double triumph in the Mirror today: for Vince Cable and for British journalism.

For Vince Cable – congratulations on another poll putting you the most popular choice for Chancellor (32% versus 23% for Darling and 21% for Osborne).

For British journalism – take a bow at a story that uses phrases such as “plunges” and “it’s all the fault of George Osborne” when in fact the poll results are, er…, not statistically significantly different from the previous poll by that pollster. (The changes are all within the margin of error.)

Perhaps next time we’ll have a footnote, “Hey, the above story may be true. But there’s also a pretty good chance it may not be. But then, when journalists are the least trusted profession in the UK after politicians you probably knew that anyway.”

Read more by or more about , or .
This entry was posted in Polls.
Advert

3 Trackbacks

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Rose Runswick
    @theakes I don't think Zack Polanski has any intention of expanding his base beyond Corbynites, which is no issue for him as in over doubling the membership thr...
  • Tristan Ward
    "This is a powerful condemnation of neoliberalism." No it isn't. As previously noted it is a set of whinges with a certain amount of inaccuracy (*). They ...
  • Peter Davies
    I think you could claim that a dogmatic insistance on a single ownership model has failed. Labour brought the "crowning heights" of the economy into public own...
  • Judy Abel
    @David Thank you. You put it so well. The pendulum has swing too far - too many are being fleeced now by ruthless private interests, both consumers and the stat...
  • David Allen
    This is a powerful condemnation of neoliberalism. Claims that other factors beside neoliberalism can sometimes also be significant serve only to muddy the wate...