Telegraph "new law" poll

[ashm]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10071072/Telegraph-new-law-competition-vote-now.html

I got a bit of a surprise when I saw the results.
A

[DaveB]

Hmmmm

Did the gun lobby hijack this poll?? If so, with what?

[epipete]

If the list represents the most pressing concerns facing this country then things are better than I thought!

[Bolsom]

I rather like the idea of people who make the dole a preferred way of life having to
do something to justify their existence. This applies only to those who are long term
and have not made an effort to find employment.

Colin

[GeoffSmith]

Repeal the ban on hand guns and re-open shooting clubs, proposed by Colliemum.

Bloody border collie loving grannies!

[ashm]

All very strange.
The existence of the poll is being widely publicised by word of mouth in shooting circles, which perhaps goes a small way to explaining the numbers, but still surprising.
The paper selected this rather excited suggestion about handguns rather than a better submission regarding the rebalancing of gun law in general, even though the latter was much more widely supported (68 votes to 8 ). See here.

I'm not very interested in the debate on handguns, but thought this was really interesting because of how the Telegraph have interfered with the process in support of their own agenda, only for the results to be further distorted by the lopsided pattern of engagement with the poll. Articles are now appearing in the States claiming this as evidence that the majority of the British public "want our handguns back"... Total nonsense, but I get the impression that this sort of thing happens across the media very frequently.

A