‘We just want to ask people a few questions,’

‘We just want to ask people a few questions,’ we said, innocently clutching our pollster’s clipboards. The GI didn’t know whether to laugh or give us a slap. ‘You’re out of your heads. Don’t even think of leaving the Palestine Hotel. I’ve been in every kind of war situation you can imagine, and this is the most dangerous — because there are no rules. It’s completely unpredictable. Now they’ve taken to CQAs (close-quarter assassinations). It’s open season on Westerners.’

A month earlier, the editor of The Spectator had asked YouGov to conduct a poll in Iraq. Our reaction had been the same as the GI’s: he must be crazy. Apart from the danger, as Internet-based pollsters, the idea of polling in a country where the telephones still don’t work was unthinkable. But week after week, he came back to us, refusing to take no for an answer. ‘You have a fundamental responsibility here,’ he said.