Surveys.

The media is obsessed with surveys. Or polls, if you prefer to call them that. For instance, last week in a survey, it was reported "New figures show people in Britain are drinking 13% less alcohol than in 2004." Now, how in hell did they work that one out? Have they recorded all the alcohol that has been sold each year? Do they know how many people were actually in the country each year? It would be impossible to find accurate figures for that. Very rough estimations, I would think.

My point is, everyday there is another survey. Every time I watch someone on tv reviewing the newspapers, they always highlight a survey reported that day. Accompanied with the usual hilarity. Oh look, "25% of men do this. 47% of women do this. 16% of us prefer doing this to that. 61% of our children spend their time doing this."

Utter nonsense! If every person in the country was asked the questions in the surveys, then yes, the statistics would be accurate. Of course, this would be impossible to do. So usually, a few thousand are quizzed for these surveys that are released to the public almost everyday. They're not a fair representation of the whole country - just the opinions of a tiny percentage of our population.

It gets up my nerves when they keep reading out these survey results as if it includes everyone. Stop it! It doesn't. It's just a few thousand. The media and lifestyle tv shows try to brainwash us with this crap. I couldn't care less if 75% of women aged 21-30 prefer doing this or that 58% of teenagers prefer doing this to that. Simply say how many people took part in the survey before reeling off the statistics. Just don't report it as if the whole bloody country was asked!