Well, it's not all good news :-(

[fjp999]

The article does not give any details on who performed the survey, how they performed it (telephone, street survey, internet poll), who paid for it etc. So I have no particular reason to believe its a reliable survey.

again, I am not an apologist for surveys but have noticed that when a survey brings data that one agrees with it must have been performed with great accuracy but if the given data goes against ones beliefs. Here is what was posted by one member on the other forum:

"The Observer is a slightly right of centre heavyweight UK Sunday newspaper, ICM is a well-known polling company, the usual 1,000 suspects aged 16+ were interviewed."

I do not know where he got his info but one could always contact the Observer and ask...

Another interesting point folk have against surveys is that they say "No one ever polled me!". I have been polled a couple of times, maybe because I still have a land line. I think one of the surveys was by a large group but another may have been by one party or another and the questions were a bit more opinionated. In the better surveys questions are considered with great care and a lot of expense is used to make surveys as accurate as possible. It is a science, even if only a social science I have also been involved in a number of focus groups. They are fascinating. If anyone has a chance to join a group, not only is the pay very very good but the discussion is fun especially when it involves wine tasting, lol... I was lucky enough to be in one with the subject of local San Francisco politics during one election there.... great fun.

Not sure if Marsh is still a member of the forum I am using info from but if anyone wants the addy I believe membership is currently open but I can generate an invite as well.

This is not quite true. We have Civil Partnerships in the UK, they are a close approximation of Marriage but they are not Marriage. I'd be interested to know how many people are OK with Civil Partnership but not Same Sex Marriage.

You are correct Fred, cant imagine the newspaper getting such a detail wrong. Maybe they use Marriage as that is what the general population understand CPs to be... a new member joined recently saying he was going to wed his partner not have a union... so it seems that terms are used in a mix match kinda way.

I am sure there have been surveys done on that very issue in the states as that is the big issue over here: Marriage VS Civil Unions...

This statistic really makes me suspicious about the accuracy of the poll. I am very doubtful that a quarter of Britons don't think the Police have better things to do than make enquiries as to what is going on in peoples private bedrooms.

Again, I dont think the question had anything to do with tax payers desire for the police to monitor activities in private bedrooms but was more of a social question... probably more on the lines of "Do you think those filthy fags buggering each other up the arse should be put in prison?"

*** sorry, thought I would have time to respond to all but gotta see my therapist... laterz.