It could be that the days of saturation general election polling ended at 10pm on May 7th

It could be that the days of saturation general election polling ended at 10pm on May 7th

The chart says it all. There have been just 6 general election polls published in the UK since May 7th – a sharp contrast with the numbers we saw even by this stage five years ago.

Confidence in the numbers that are produced has collapsed – a situation not helped by the polling ahead of last weekend’s referendum in Greece. If polling cannot give us even a broad picture of a likely general election outcome then what is the point?

It might be that the British Polling Council study into what went wrong will produce recommendations for change but it is going to take an awful lot before confidence returns.

Hard-pressed media owners are unlikely to invest much in testing public opinion when they know how little this will be rated by their audiences.

Mike Smithson



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