Couldn’t this devalue their output?

According to YouGov senior executive and the man behind UKPollingReport, Anthony Wells, this week marks the start of daily polls being published by the firm – seemingly forever.

The idea was started during last year’s autumn conference season and was revived in February for the run-up to polling day. Both those moves seemed logical given the proximity of the general election.

But what are we to make of this latest development? Do we really want or need a daily poll, delivered by Twitter, so far out from a general election?

Covering these things presents problems for sites like PB and and Anthony’s UKPR if only for the reason he states – “..one can only say “no significant change from yesterday” in a limited number of ways without repeating yourself.”

Anthony’s plan is “not to make a big fuss of the new figures each day” – something that I think that PB should follow. Certainly each new poll, as was the practice in the pre-election period, won’t merit a separate thread.

I do worry for YouGov that so much output might devalue the way their polling is seen – it could be regarded as less of a “special event” than, say, an ICM poll. I also worry whether polling should be restricted to 24 hour fieldwork periods.

The election outcome affected my views on internet polling – I’m less of an enthusiast. At the election five of the top six slots in the polling accuracy table went to phone pollsters. Five of the bottom six slots were occupied by internet firms.

For the record the overnight YouGov Twitter had – CON 40% (-1): LAB 36% (nc): LD 17% (+2).

Mike Smithson