Vote now - who thinks the Times got a bit desperate?

If at first you don't have a splash ... well you can always go online and find one. Today's Times leads with the news that its own "interactive poll" has revealed growing consumer anxiety. More than a third of people are more worried about losing their jobs than they were last year, according to the survey of 2,476 views. But what's the methodological basis for this "new kind of poll"? Readers of the Times website were invited to click answers to just five questions and then required to leave their postcode. Tucked away on page 4, Tom Whitwell, the paper's communities editor, elaborates: "At Times Online, we can do things differently. We can throw out questions to our readers and capture their mood quickly, cheaply and easily. It does not have the statistical rigour of an opinion poll, but it's a snapshot of unfiltered opinion and anecdote." So some random readers are moaning about the economy - hold the front page! Oh, they already did.