The fickle nature of opinion polls

Did you see BBC News at Ten tonight? An opinion poll of 1,000 people has shown that fewer now believe that man-made climate change is a reality. Well, of course it would, wouldn't it! The media have been telling us over the last month or two that there has been skullduggery in climate change research. But very few of us - certainly not I - are able to examine the evidence and come to a balanced judgement, so we have to rely on what the media tell us and the spin they give it. And there's also been a cold winter, which is not of course relevant but which makes it hard for those who don't understand the subject to believe in global warming.

I mention all this, as you will have guessed, because it provides a near-exact parallel to our own situation. Opinion polls show support for 'assisted dying', not because those concerned have thought about or understand the subject but because they are reliant on what the media have told them - and good care and good deaths aren't news, whereas prosecutions and Swiss suicides are.