Asking the right questions

By Jason Moore I am slightly disappointed in the youth of Majorca who don't appear to have strong views on anything. The Balearic government commission a major survey of the youth of the islands and really it fails to give any real insight into what peopl aged between 15 and 29 believe. 58 percent say that Castillan Spanish is their first language while only 17 percent say that it is Catalan; 22 percent say that it is both languages. Thirty-five percent say that they would vote socialist and 22 percent say they would vote Conservative. But what disappoints me is that there is not a single issue which attracts a majority vote. Perhaps, its due to the fact that the wrong questions have been asked. Surely, if you are doing a costly survey you should ask young people who there see the island developing; whether young people would like to see the island continue to be a mass tourist destination or they would prefer if there were fewer holidaymakers. I am not surprised that a majority prefer to speak Castillan rather than Catalan. You have to take into account that the majority of the 100'000 immigrants who have arrived on the island over the last decade speak Castillan and many do not believe that there is a need to speak Catalan. It must please the local government though, to see that there is an important percentage of the youth of the island who would vote for them. You generally think that most young people are left-wing rather than Conservative. Not in the Balearics where 22 percent would vote for a right-wing party. One thing this survey confirms is that if you don't ask the right questions you don't get the right answers.