A recent poll by More in Common for The Sunday Times found that only 29% of British adults would still vote to leave the EU. But as Gully Foyle explains, this is not true.
The devil is in the details. As the
article announcing the poll results is behind a paywall, most have only
seen The Sunday Times’ headline.
In a second blow to The Sunday
Times, a larger poll was being conducted while The Times was preparing
its article. And this poll showed the opposite.
The Sunday Times
published an article at the weekend, regarding a poll of 2,000 British
adults conducted on its behalf by More in Common. This poll showed what
they reported as a turning of the tables on support for Brexit, with
only 29 per cent of those included in the poll saying they would still
vote to leave the EU.
The story has been picked up by numerous
outlets in the intervening days, and the usual pro-EU suspects on social
media have been keen to capitalise on what appears to be an important
change in support in the British electorate. But as ever with catchy
headlines, the devil is hidden in the details of the article, and the
raw data from the polling itself.
One of the joys of modern
digital news consumption in the social-media age is that narratives are
easily spun by catchy headlines to those who don’t read the articles.
Moreover, the ever-growing increase in paywalled content means that the
vast majority of readers could not and would not read the article even
if they wanted to. So, the gem that Conservative supporters and Reform
UK supporters, who between them currently represent over 50 per cent of
voting intention, overwhelmingly still support staying out of the EU, is
lost on all but a handful of those who would be exposed to the
headline. This detail is also, of course, left out by those who are
peddling the narrative over social media.
Unbeknown to The
Sunday Times, another larger poll was being conducted as they were
preparing their article. However, this one was looking to avoid the use
of the dreaded “B word” completely and instead focusing on the
underlying wishes of the British electorate and where they would
ultimately like power to preside....<<<Read More>>>...
