As a former professional market researcher, and having worked for several years in a newspaper research department, I know full well that newspaper “polls” of their own readers have limited scientific value: they are conducted primarily to provide talking points for the editorial staff: the self-selecting sample from an atypical readership bears almost no resemblance to the population at large. So, one should expect a poll of Daily Telegraph readers, hardly the most progressive of British newspapers, to reflect the newspaper’s usual, conservative stance.
This makes it all the more interesting that when I read the Daily Telegraph article on Archbishop Nichols’ intervention, on behalf of the church in England and Wales, in the gay marriage debate for the UK, the results were so overwhelmingly in favour of marriage equality. If we are to take this result it face value, it would seem that even for readers of this most conservative of papers, there is minimal support for the archbishop: 81% of respondents support gay marriage.
This was the response I had after I had submitted by own response to the question, “Do you think that gay marriage should be legalised?”
Thank you for voting!
Total Votes: 34,642
