Political surveys

[watervole]

I've just filled in a highly loaded, politically biased survey from one of our local political parties (the one I normally vote for, so this isn't a gripe at the opposition).

Many questions I simply refused to answer. eg. Do I feel that Council Tax is a fair system? (all systems of taxation are considered unfair by those who pay more under that system than the alternatives. If we want to pay less tax, then we have to demand fewer services)

Do I feel more bobbies on the beat is a better use of money than an identity card scheme? (Neither. If you really want to reduce offending rates, then there are schemes for working with prisoners to help them develop social and educational skills that are more cost-effective - but less popular politically - than either of the alternatives offered in the question)

At least they left lots of space for comments.

Comments

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

:) I always find myself saying "that depends" to just about every question... they probably don't love me one little bit.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

We did a survey last year, and tried to make it more open-ended by having a lot of multiple choice, eg which of the following is important to you (housing, childcare, transport etc etc), which do you think is well provided locally, which are you dissatisfied with. Trouble was that made it quite long, and punters aren't very interested in filling in long forms, so you don't get enough data to draw any clear conclusions.

Well ...

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

... ok, I agree with you in general, but I'm feeling pedantic this lunchtime (so no change there!)

If we want to pay less tax, then we have to demand fewer services
Or ... we have to spend a smaller amount more efficiently so that we can provide not just the same number of services, but at a sensible level.
There isn't a company out there that doesn't have waste somewhere in the system. Whether that's from bad planning, bad management, throwing good money after bad, making wrong choices or just sheer inefficiency. Local councils are no different. I *know* some of the stuff that went on in certain departments in Hackney council, so I know there was waste (and theft and corruption).

And no, Council Tax is not a fair system (but what you say is also true) as it continues to tax people year after year for *spending* money in a single purchase (on buying property) rather than on the services they use or the profit made from selling the property.
Council tax is not designed to get people to move out of big properties by making them unaffordable, but that's one of the results (if someone working for minimum wage and living at home with an elderly parent (with little or no savings aside from the big family house) suddenly finds themselves orphaned, then the Inheritance tax and Council tax will conspire to make them have to sell their property)

Do I feel more bobbies on the beat is a better use of money than an identity card scheme? Rather than neither, my answer is "Yes, but the money could be better spent elsewhere, or not spent at all".

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

Survey design is terribly difficult. Too simple, and respondents can't give you accurate replies. Too complex, and you end up with something that is absolutely monstrous to analyse. In the end you do end up having to restrict the number of boxes available for people to tick. That's why, in every survey I've ever had a hand in, there has been space for free comments. You can never devise a survey that covers all possible reponses, and the things people write that you hadn't thought of asking are often the most interesting bits.

I had a role in designing a consultation/survey for Cambridge City Council, all about the ways we might change the waste and recycling system. There were five potential changes on the table: they were not mutually exclusive, though some options did exclude certain other options. It was an absolute nightmare trying to design the questions so that we would get useful information back when the responses were analysed.

In the case of the survey you're talking about, it looks like the approach is to ask (in effect) "Do you agree with our party policy on this issue?", and to provide free space for you to elaborate if you want to. That's probably reasonably effective in terms of getting the basic information easily, without preventing people from giving more sophisticated answers.

I would take issue with all systems of taxation are considered unfair by those who pay more under that system than the alternatives, insofar as my parents opposed the introduction of the poll tax in Scotland, despite the fact that they personally paid far less in poll tax than they did in local rates.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

In the case of the survey you're talking about, it looks like the
approach is to ask (in effect) "Do you agree with our party policy on
this issue?", and to provide free space for you to elaborate if you want
to.

It was more 'don't you think the government's policy is rubbish' and quoting carefully selected statistics to influence your answer.

Having said that, the first half of the questionaire had a lot of sensible questions on what was important locally and had no bias of any kind.