Validity of polls

[Hoopoo]

Every day there is a new opinion poll published regarding the popularity of the 3 major political parties or the number of whites who would have sex with a person of another colour or breast feeding in public or is El Presidenti Political Rent Boy Brown handling the financial crisis adequately etc etc, the list is endless.

What I want to know is who validates these polls, I dont know anyone who has ever been stopped and asked an opinion, I have never been asked nor have I ever been telephoned and asked for an opinion.

Do such polls really exist and if so why is it that so few people seems to be canvessed?

And, the $64,000 question is, are they just a scam for whoever has an interest in these notional results, does a Gallup office really exist?

[Midas]

Whilst I've never been asked either, polls such as those conducted by Gallup are absolutely genuine and are very important in assessing the public's response to a whole range of subjects, political or otherwise.

There's always a slight margin of error in such polls unless the numbers surveyed run into hundreds of thousands - which they don't, they're usually just 4 figure samples - but they're accurate enough for most comparative purposes as the sampling errors on either 'side' usually cancel each other out.

[Hoopoo]

Whilst I've never been asked either, polls such as those conducted by Gallup are absolutely genuine and are very important in assessing the public's response to a whole range of subjects, political or otherwise.

There's always a slight margin of error in such polls unless the numbers surveyed run into hundreds of thousands - which they don't, they're usually just 4 figure samples - but they're accurate enough for most comparative purposes as the sampling errors on either 'side' usually cancel each other out.

OK Midas, I hear what you say! My question is how do we know they are genuine? How is the publics response accurately assessed if but only a few are canvessed? For instance, a question might be asked in Kensington or Knightsbridge for which we would get answer A, the same question could be asked on a sink estate in Oldham for which we get answer Z.

Do you think perhaps that certain parties/organisations arrange their own polls in order to:

a. Assess a response to a yet to be introduced course of action

b. Have the results show an 80% approval for that course of action in order to get the "dont knows" or "will never know" to fall in line via a form of auto suggestion

Hmmmmn, never trust polls eh as they may not reflect the opinion of the majority but convince the dopey people to get on a winning side, I dunno! Anyhow, thanks for the response, you have a good christmas.