Dr. S. F. D. Waldron
Department of Mathematics
University of Auckland

Polls show Rebels don't have a clue -----------------------------------

A recent press release from Prebble's rebels claims that a self selecting internet poll of 181 voters shows that New Zealanders who have left New Zealand will not return following the election of a Labour/Alliance government.

According to the Rebel's website the previous two of these polls ``show'' that ACT would get 58 seats in parliament in the 1999 election (the Greens none), and the majority of voters prefer the legalization or decriminalization of cannabis.

Shayne Waldron a mathematics lecturer at Auckland University says that the quoting of such completely meaningless polls has increased with the advent of the internet which makes the so called ``results'' easier to collect and distribute.

These polls are a bit of fun, especially those so biased as the ones run off the website of a political party.

But he cautions that the media should not give any publicity to the results. It just compounds the problem of innumeracy in our society.

The next Rebel's poll asks "Is socialism the ideology of tomorrow?"

Presumably this means will future governments be on the left of the political spectrum, or perhaps is socialism the answer to our current problems.

Let's wait and see.

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