Poles

There has been quite a little talk lately about people putting poles in polls. Pollsters adjusting their polls to get the results they want. There is also another effect in play.

In the hundreds upon hundreds of letters I received when I last spoke on th[e] subject [of immigration] two or three months ago, there was one striking feature which was largely new and which I find ominous. All Members of Parliament are used to the typical anonymous correspondent; but what surprised and alarmed me was the high proportion of ordinary, decent, sensible people, writing a rational and often well-educated letter, who believed that they had to omit their address because it was dangerous to have committed themselves to paper to a Member of Parliament agreeing with the views I had expressed, and that they would risk penalties or reprisals if they were known to have done so. The sense of being a persecuted minority which is growing among ordinary English people in the areas of the country which are affected [by mass immigration] is something that those without direct experience can hardly imagine.

That was from 1968. And the punchline? The MP was called a racist. Sound like any situation we see today in American politics? In America we have a name for it. The Bradley/Wilder Effect. So it is not new. And it is unmeasurable. But the Republican Primary gave us hints.


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