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The most interesting datum contained in your poll of academic voting intentions was the fact that 126 out of 501 academics polled declined to "express a voting intention" ("Academics abandon Tories", THES , May 11). Had the poll differentiated between "won't says" and "no ways", and then added the total of deliberate abstainees to the pie chart, it is likely that academic abstention from voting at the general election would prove to be statistically significant.

Maybe The THES would consider polling academics on abstention? As thoughtful, highly educated voters, academic abstainees hardly fit the stereotype of the "apathetic" non-voter. Rather, they are the very people who are most likely to see beyond the political game of "the lesser of two evils" and are more unlikely to give their vote to any party that they find politically or morally wanting.

Mike Diboll
Rotherhithe, London