Confused Men Today

Last week, The Irish Times were making a lot of hay out of their 'Men Today Poll', according to them, the most in-depth look into the health, wealth and sex lives of Irish men today.. Indeed.. I skipped most of it on the basis that I don't really care about the health and wealth of my fellow countrymen and I'm not really sure that you can get much out of these kinds of polls anyway apart from filling a lot of space in a broadsheet..

Anyway, I was killing time on Friday night and picked up a copy of the paper to read while I waited.. And the results of the poll were a little confusing.

Here's the first question about sex and morality:
Compared to 20 years ago, do you think that attitudes towards sex have changed?
Much more liberal 73%
A little more liberal 19%
Have not changed much 5%
A little more conservative 0%
Much more conservative 1% (wouldn't you love to know what this chap was getting up to in the '80s?!

Anyway, that's all fair enough and probably not very surprising. But the next question blew the whole thing wide open:

Do you personally think that it is:
A good thing: 51%
A bad thing: 25%
Neither: 25%

My question here is who are we talking to? Is that question directed at the 73% who thing things are a lot more liberal or the 1% who think that things are a lot more conservative? Surely this questions is redundant and tells us nothing.. As do the next handful of questions that all stem from the answer to the question that precedes it: If it's a good thing it's better for men or women; if it's a bad thing do you think it's worse for men or women etc..

So know we're 4 of 5 questions in to the most in-depth poll on what men think ever conducted in Ireland and we can only take information from one of the questions. And, let's be honest we already know the answer to that one.

Later on it asks whether or not people polled agreed that the political system in Ireland is better at supporting men.
17% agreed
50% disagreed
32% didn't know.

On its own, that's good information.. Then things got confusing with the next question which asked whether they agreed that the political system in Ireland is better at supporting women. I would've thought that the first question answered the second too. In other words, if 17% think the system is better for men and 32% don't know, doesn't that mean 51% think the system is better for woman? Nope it doesn't..

In actual fact the response to the comment that the political system in Ireland is better at supporting women got this response.
35% agreed
31% disagreed
34% didn't know.

How can that be? How could more people not know the answer to the second question that the first? What's the matter with these people? Am I missing something obvious here? And how come nobody asked me?

I know it seems like I'm nitpicking (hey - I never even mentioned the amount of percentages that don't add up to 100%) but if something is being heralded as lifting the lid on what modern Irishmen do and think then don't you agree that the information it reveals should be a little clearer?

Agree
Disagree
Don't Know
Other