I think Anthony Butler overstates the West’s banana republic status (Brexit and Trump: has predictability gone up the poll? November 18). Brexit and Trump exposed the weakness of the polling processes when changes are not standard. A South African branding company called BrandsEye got it right by monitoring social media. It screened 34-million social media events and predicted that Trump would win. This shouldn’t have been a surprise. Democratic Party supporters trashed the potential Trump voters as groups. Hillary Clinton’s categorisation was "a basket of deplorables". In this environment few people who intended voting for Trump were going to say so to a pollster. Social media, however, is a different kettle of fish. As we know from our infamous racism cases, people express their innermost thoughts on social media. And, voila! You get a different result. SC WeissParktown North
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