The following letter has been sent to the Times and other newspapers which published the Poll – Three Quarters of Britons would back a local wind farm.
The public, in general, do not have much confidence in Polls as they understand that meaningful unbiased results are dependent on how respondents are selected for the survey and what questions are asked. A small number of selected and paid panelists, (as confirmed by YouGov) with a vested interest in the results will produce skewed and unreliable answers. But such polls, often paid for by industry, wanting to evidence their desired ‘public opinion’ are used to shape Government policy. This is not representative of public opinion or balanced press reporting.
The latest Poll conducted by YouGov for the Times claiming “Three Quarters of Britons would back a local wind farm” does not tell us how these paid respondents were selected. Campaign group, Scotland Against Spin has posed these questions and awaits the answers.
However, from information already received, it is notable that of the 1826 UK respondents (weighted results) there were only 157 Scottish respondents (0.0028% Scottish population) even though there are more onshore turbines in Scotland than the rest of the countries in the UK put together. There is no information as to where these respondents live in relation to any windfarm. Are respondents recruited from urban areas benefiting from electricity generated out of sight? Are such pollsters ever likely to experience any adverse effect from either onshore windfarms or nuclear installations? The 157 total number of Scottish respondents compare with 219 respondents from London where there are no onshore wind farms and never likely to be and a further 614 respondents from the ‘south of England’, where there are very few onshore wind farms, all of them tiny in comparison with Scotland.
It is easy to say you support wind farms in your neighbourhood if you know there is virtually no chance of you ever having one.
Graham Lang
Chairman
Scotland Against Spin
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