There are polls and there are polls, not all are worthy of note.
Before I take much notice of any poll, I always want to know what question was asked.
"Welfare reform" could mean anything from abolition of the welfare state rigfht through to increasing benefits.

It's only a few weeks since Gove used the same tactic about "survey after survey has shown ..." and it turned out that the one survey that even touched upon his topic was irrelevant.

And, of course, is peddling lies in the process of trying to 'sell' these changes.

You lost that one as well.

By the way - has anyone seen AJW and crumpledforeskin in the same room at the same time?

Yes, he and was caught out trying to say that the claimant count went down because of his reforms ... his own department had to issue a statement saying they couldn't support the claim.
But, as usual, the rightwing press didn't blare out the correction as they did with IDS's lies.

I lost? Because you say so.

Don't make a fool of yourself laddie.

Well of course you will try and discredit them because you are don't want to face the fact that the majority support the changes that are being introduced.

Even if you were to somehow draw the conclusion that the majority did indeed support the reforms it would be because they have all been brainwashed by rabid right wing press. So predictable.

The people who administer these things are useless. We wrote a while back to stop child benefit. Mrs D subsequently wrote to say we had to actually pay some back to them. So what do they do? They now write saying they going to pay 6 months backdated child benefit into our bank account!

As has been pointed out to you many times before, the problem with polls is twofold, firstly in the aim and intention of the poll (in case you didn't realise it almost every poll has a pre-determined intention), and secondly in its interpretation and reporting.

If you ask the question "Do you support measures to stop benefits claimants from claiming for things they ar enot entitled to" then you will get a big majority of the population to agree with your poll, if you then publish your findings under the headline "Big majority of the population support welfare cuts" then most of the population will believe that it must be true, without further investigation.

Its a simple enough example, but with this term of government we've seen that they are no longer trying to hide or deflect blame from their decisions, they are now brazen with it and my first and instant reaction to any poll is now "Show me the actual poll and the results and then let me see the reporting before I decide for myself".

Ultimately the only poll that will count will be in 2015, or if Cameron gets challenged by his own party.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23122369 Well done, IDS, you've managed to create homes standing empty whilst still having a shortage of homes. That takes a special sort of talent for vindictiveness.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23122369 Well done, IDS, you've managed to create homes standing empty whilst still having a shortage of homes. That takes a special sort of talent for vindictiveness.

The word "vindictive" is particularly applicable to this specific piece of legislation as its based on nothing less than an opportunity to cut costs from a welfare budget for no other reason than a strange preoccupation with the sleeping arrangements of those in social housing and on benefits.

You can just tell even without asking the question that this cruel law came straight from a suggestions box during the first phase of government when heads of departments were told to go away and think up ANY reason to cut their budgets ANYHOW - this was probably put in the suggestion box for a laugh and its author probably never believed in a million years that it would be enacted but bizarrely we now find its upon us and causing absolute havoc amongst a group of people who are least able to cope - vindictive indeed.

What with soaring rent arrears, the cost of chasing those arrears, houses now standing empty, more being spent on B & B because the empty houses are "too big", councils and housing associations having to find staff to deal with the bedroom tax ... the whole bloody fiasco must be costing more than it saves ... but hey, it's not coming out of IDS's budget ... so it must be a success. www.insidehousing.co.uk/tenancie ... 47.article ... and this goon thinks that it's necessary in order to keep interest rates low. You couldn't make it up !

What with soaring rent arrears, the cost of chasing those arrears, houses now standing empty, more being spent on B & B because the empty houses are "too big", councils and housing associations having to find staff to deal with the bedroom tax ... the whole bloody fiasco must be costing more than it saves ... but hey, it's not coming out of IDS's budget ... so it must be a success. www.insidehousing.co.uk/tenancie ... 47.article ... and this goon thinks that it's necessary in order to keep interest rates low. You couldn't make it up !

TORIES - Putting the 'N' in CUTS

"Going to church makes you as much a Christian as standing in a garage makes you a mechanic..."