Worthless
Sir: Auberon Waugh (`Damned lies', 17 December) exposes considerable ignorance of survey research by suggesting that one- seventieth of one per cent of women over 16 is a statistically worthless sample. I'll make him a deal: if he won't write nonsense about survey research I won't write nonsense about wine.
What percentage of a bottle of wine does Mr Waugh have to drink to find if it is off, and tell me, does he drink twice as much for a magnum and four times as much for a jeroboam?
Yet even as I write, Waugh's totally bogus information is being absorbed into 20,000 or more Spectator readers, ex- trapolated, redigested and pilgerised, thus compounding the confusion with which people regard survey research and social trends.
Robert M. Worcester
Market & Opinion Research International, 32 Old Queen Street, London SW I
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