WHAT THE SPECTATOR POLL IS
THIS week, we launch the Spectator Poll. Conducted by the Harris Research Centre, the survey is designed to elicit the opin- ions, not of the general public, but of those holding senior positions in Britain, those who take important decisions and whose views are likely to influence public policy. One hundred and fifty-five respondents have been drawn from the City, business and industry, the trade unions, press and television, the universities, the law, medi- cine, the arts, the clergy, the Civil Service and the Houses of Parliament. Respon- dents are polled by telephone. We intend to conduct surveys of a similar sample at more or less regular intervals to build up a picture of the opinions, anxieties and prejudices of the group concerned. As the General Election approaches, we hope that the poll's findings will reveal an agenda of the concerns of the British
Questions will not be confined to party politics but will range over all matters of public interest. We emphasise that no survey of this sort can be quantitatively accurate — its value is to give a general portrait of current attitudes in the most influential reaches of British society. Naturally, these concerns may frequently be very different from those of the popula- tion at large, reflecting the group's unusual composition — in this week's survey, for example, 96 per cent of the respondents 'are male and 73 per cent are over 45.
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