Bob Worcester: The founder of Mori and one of the most pre-eminent people in the UK polling industry, Sir Robert Worcester will be joining us for an hour or so tomorrow to discuss, amongst other things, the latest Ipsos-Mori poll – due out in the Observer in the morning. I am hoping that Bob’s appearance will start a new feature on PBC when leading figures in the polling industry can talk about how they see things going.

Comment publishing arrangements. After nearly four years of full open publishing of comments a modest control measure has been introduced today in advance of a general election campaign. If the details featured – the name and email address etc – are not known to the site then comments will be held in a moderation box hopefully for not more than an hour.

Regular posters will notice no difference provided their details are the same. If there is a change then you might find that your comment will be held up.

I could have opted for pre-registration which is cumbersome and inhibits people coming on to the site. I am hoping that this modest measure will enable the discussions to continue in the manner that many of us enjoy. If there are any problems then please drop me an email.

Any volunteers I am looking for two or three regular users who can assist me in the management of the site during the campaign. I will be asking our normal stand-in editor, Paul Maggs but I think we need one or two others who can provide some cover. I have a particular problem in mid-October when I will be in North America on a business trip.

Site slim-down To ease pressure on the server the number of articles that will appear when you come to the site will be reduced to three or four. If you want to regularly refer to early thread then can I suggest that you subscribe to an RSS service where the 25 most recent threads are easily accessible.

Site traffic September has already surpassed all previous months yesterday alone the were more than 65,000 page downloads – a total that was only surpassed at the May elections. No other UK political site gets anywhere near these figures.

Mike Smithson