Stats entertainment
It is to be noted with interest that the British Social Attitudes survey…
…found seven in every 10 people think compulsory identity cards for all adults would be “a price worth paying” to reduce the threat of terrorism. Eight in 10 say the authorities should be able to tap the phones of people suspected of involvement in terrorism, open their mail and impose electronic tagging or home curfews.
Now, I’m no statistician or pollster but I would like to see have seen another question inserted into that survey:
Can you see yourself at any time in the future falling victim to a miscarriage of justice or being otherwise inconvenienced by this so-called ’surrender’ of civil liberties?
I’d bet that a similar figure to those above would say ‘no’. Hence the above figures.
I’d also like to see the survey data broken down by race and religion. How many brown and/or Muslim people (let’s say) support home curfews or detention without trial?
Posted on January 26th, 2007 at 10:22am under T.W.A.T., The home front
Of course, if you asked those 7 exactly how compulsory ID cards are going to prevent terrorism, you wouldn’t get any answers at all. Except maybe “erm, like, they will, won’t they… yeah”.
Other questions that one might like asked would include these:
1. What level of suspicion are we talking about?
2. How should the misuse of these powers be avoided?
How to make a balanced survey.
Great analysis. Precisely my point.
I am always fairly cynical of poll results. This is a good example.