I’ve commented before on some of the poll findings that papers pay for but then don’t report (all for reasons of space you understand; never because they don’t meet the desired editorial line; not at all; no way).
Here’s another one, courtesy of The Sunday Times and YouGov:
A group of 23 business leaders have written to the Daily Telegraph newspaper backing the Conservative announcement that they will shelve part of next year’s rise in National Insurance. Do you think that the business leaders are…
Speaking out in the country’s interest 18%
Speaking out in their own interest 50%
Both 22%
Don’t know 11%
Pretty striking and interesting finding don’t you think? Although business leaders backing Tories are all over the media, the public actually have given them a fairly sceptical reaction. Newsworthy, even you might have thought.
The Sunday Times covered National Insurance and YouGov and elections all in but can you guess what didn’t feature?
In fairness to the Sunday Times, by using a pollster such as YouGov we can all if we want look up the full details of the poll and see what questions the paper has and hasn’t reported. That certainly puts it in a better position than, for example, the Daily Mail whose polls do not have the same level of transparency.
(Note to self: at some point you’ll poke fun at a newspaper for not reporting a story but find out that it did. Remember to order in extra chocolately humble pie just in case.)
One Comment
Labour missed a trick on this one. If I had been Peter Mandelson (shudder, shudder) I would have said something like: “Mark my words. These are the guys who are going to be giving the orders if the Tories get into No 10.”