A member has posted the following which needs widest possible circulation …
Bristol Airport has commissioned a survey of the southwest to see whether we wanted the airport extended. They asked 217 people (so not very many at all) and extrapolated from there. They told them that the airport would be expanding from 10 to 12 million (which it isn’t – it’s from 8 million to 12 million). From this they deduced that 71% of people in the southwest are for the expansion of Bristol Airport.
Although it’s a YouGov survey, don’t be fooled into thinking that’s some kind of objective, government-led thing. This was commissioned and paid for by the airport – so no conflict of interests there! We have no idea of the methodology, though even a cursory glance would render the results invalid. Being asked whether you want to see growth from 8 million to 12 million or from 10 million to 12 million is a slip of the pen far too far!!
Anyone who has ever had anything to do with statistics understands that there is no neutral and they tend to be generated via a format which promotes and pursues an agenda. We wouldn’t like to say what that is without looking closely at the methodology but, despite requests, no such undertaking to provide it has been given.
Won’t be giving up though #watch this space and #don‘tbelievebristolairportpublicitymachine
Actually, the methodology has been provided now and anyone who has ever been involved in the analysis of quantitative data would see at once that it’s worse than you would ever believe. SBAE will soon be running it’s own survey via http://www.peopleforresearch.co.uk . We await results soon!
Very interesting. We must find effective ways to counter these flakey exercises.