Keith A of Hartford suggests that I am "in denial" about dodgy polls - I only wish I was - although I do admit to some SLIGHT exaggeration in framing my fictional poll question.
The fact is that another characteristic of powerful people is that they always seem to require justification for their actions and, these days, this always comes down to having numbers available to support their agendas, preconceptions and prejudices. The interesting thing is that the likes of Blair, who must operate within a parliamentary democracy, needs such numbers, spurious or otherwise, to support his case but even unconstitutional tyrants seem to need them as well. Until recently I worked for such a gang of tyrants (typical British bosses!) and they were always commissioning studies carefully designed to give them the answers they wanted.
As someone with an interest in data and statistics I get sick and tired of the phrase, "there are lies, damned lies and statistics". I can't remember who coined this phrase but he was WRONG: there are only LIES!
By the way, what is the point of going to all the trouble and expense of running a spurious study - why not just make the numbers up?