How can a question be biased?
The issue the right seem to have with the questions is their forthrightness. Much like Cameron wriggling last night, how does a Tory answer questions like ‘To what extent do you agree or disagree that big business benefits owners at the expense of workers?’ and ‘ To what extent do you agree or disagree that ordinary working people do not get their fair share of the nation’s wealth?’
To refute the traditional socialist line, a committed Tory would have to say ‘Disagree’. But that would clearly be nonsense. Oh, those poor Mail readers and their sore brains.
These are direct questions asked by an organisation with an historical political understanding of what it means to be ‘right’ or ‘left’, and therefore will not include distracting side shows about immigration that have nothing to do with party / social philosophical views but everything to do with people’s experience / perception / concerns around single issues other than the individual’s relationship to capital.
It is the directness of the questioning around straightforward left/right divisions that seems to be upsetting the more right among us, and leading them to accuse these simple questions about attitudes of being somehow biased.
The point is that attitudes do change. This poll was presented to show that they do (and demonstrate a remarkable correlation between direction of drift and the political colour of the incumbent Government), and also to show an individual where they currently stand among shifting sands.
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