Do people love Kingsnorth Power Station?

A report out fairly soon will show that most people support the construction of a new facility at Kingsnorth Power Station using carbon capture technology. But this won't be true - or, rather, there's no way to tell from the poll whether it is true or not.

Today, I was called by ICM and took part in a survey. It was lengthy and wide-ranging, asking which supermarket I usually shop in, which car insurer I use, and what I would look for in a new soft drink.

The political questions at the start were of rather more interest. Firstly, they asked how likely I was to vote, then which party I was likely to vote for - mentioning only Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem. They also asked who I voted for in 2005, and then how likely I would be to vote for four parties - Lib Dem, Conservative, Labour and UKIP.

Most interestingly, they asked about the Climate Camp. Had I heard of it, and did I know what its purpose was. They then named Kingsnorth Power Station and asked if I knew who operated it. I was quietly pleased to remember that it was e.on.

The next question had a strong push - they asked whether I would support the construction of the new facility at the power station, emphasising that it would use carbon capture technology as soon as it becomes available, and mentioned a few benefits of this technology. I do hope that ICM tried to dissuade e.on from phrasing it this way. Then, in light of this, would this improve or lower my opinion of e.on.

No doubt this will elicit the information that - when pushed with a question phrased in the most positive manner - most respondents support the new power station and think this reflects well on e.on.

This style of questioning has been debunked on numerous occasions, and there's a good example about the Christian Institute's poll on abortion written by Anthony Wells of the UK Polling Report: "the best way to ask a survey question is to give the minimal amount of information, since for every bit of background information you provide you risk skewing the answer or, by making them better informed than other people, making your sample unrepresentative."