On Monday, Richard Black wrote about an Ipsos-Mori poll conducted on behalf of Renewables UK:
Earlier this month, Ipsos-Mori asked a representative sample of just over 1,000 adults to what extent they favoured wind power.
Sixty-six per cent were either "strongly in favour of" or "tended to favour" the technology, against just 8% who were opposed.
Pretty strong support, wouldn't you say?
However, thanks to a twitterer who goes by the name of "The Debunker No 2 BS" it has now been revealed that the poll might have been, well, less straightforward than might have been expected. The clue is in the technical details of the report, where we find that:
Questions were asked online of 1,009 adults aged between 16 and 64 across Great Britain.
Whatever happened to the over-65s? Do they have no opinions on windfarms? Perhaps someone with more experience of these kinds of polls can tell me whether this exclusion of older people is normal in these kinds of surveys. Either way, Richard Black has reported the poll as being representative of British people rather than those of working age.
Quelle surprise.