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As to polls ... when I was finishing as a student back in the dim and distant I got a short job with a polling company during the 1974 General Election. Our briefing was to go out to canvass the views of folks on the mean streets of London's West End about the worth of Labour/Tory/Libs (Wilson/Heath/Thorpe). However, we were told only to approach certain folks identified by the way of their appearance, i.e., well-dressed elegant women and affluent looking blokes; we were told not to approach poorer looking people or those with kids ... this was to more or less skew the findings. As a result I've never trusted polls or those who rely on them to build their arguments. Of course, I will always trust polls conducted for my beloved Guardian.