Polls, Polls, Polls

Oh for the love of god, can we dispense with all the $#&@*!# polls??? Evertime I see the news, or read a newspaper I'm confronted with the latest poll and the newsreader/writer's breathless analysis of what the numbers "mean" or what the purportedly 'represent'. What they mean is that polls are useless. And poll analysis is especially useless. I mean, come on - when a one point change from poll to poll is trumpeted as a 'surge' in support? Its within the margin of error for crying out loud! How can that "represent" anything?

While I am all in favour of removing freedom of speech restrictions (eg the election gag laws the Liberals have been trying to enact for years), I am completely in favour of banning all polling and reporting on polls during an election. Let the politicians have discussions on policy, let them announce their positions on various issues (without the benefit of "test marketing" them) and then see how voters decide - on election day (you know, the one poll that actually means something).

And while I am at it. another thing I would like to do away with is election night coverage - this whole "race" aspect where a candidate is "ahead" in a particular riding, or "leading" - I find it all quite annoying. Hows about waiting until the votes are counted and then announcing who the winners are? Isn't that what this whole exercise in democracy is about? Its not a fucking race, its citizens exercising their democratic rights and then having the ballots counted to determine who garnered the most votes and will represent them in Parliament. The whole "race" notion, fuelled by the endless polls and culminating in the horse-race election night coverage, does a disservice to the whole thing.

Ah well...