"As an extremist..."

According to the British Election Survey 16% of the population viewed Tony Blair as "Extreme" in the run up to the 1997 general election.

By 2001 this had fallen to 15%.

I don't have the figure for the 2005 election but I wonder if these space aliens had revised their views?

Extreme!? leaving the aside what your definition of extremist is, surely the whole point of Tony Blair and the whole New Labour project is not to be "extremely" anything...did these people really think that TB was a closet commie? the mind boggles.

In love surveys. I always imagine having a pint with some of the total buffoons responsible for the slightly loopy fringes of them and asking them to explain, slowly, what wild-eyed logic led them in the split second to betray their lunacy to some bloke from MORI or wherever.

It seems that no matter how batty the question you pose there'll always be some small but not insignificant percentage willing to give their unblinking assent to something unutterably bonkers. Like the surreal percentage of people who text in "Don't know" to tv polls.