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Month: August 2014

LAB doing better against the Tories in key marginals than in national polling

LAB doing better against the Tories in key marginals than in national polling

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CON being killed in the marginals by UKIP & LD-LAB switching @LordAshcroft headline on his latest round of marginals polling http://t.co/AoSsiFHXH7 sums it up. pic.twitter.com/fzkCivDkwa — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) August 20, 2014 On the basis of today's round of @LordAshcroft polls LAB is doing better in the marginals and is heading for working majority — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) August 20, 2014 LAB taking a third of all 2010 LD voters in latest batch of LAB-CON marginals polled by @LordAshcroft much…

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Salmond says he’s ready to put his job on the line and even disband the SNP to help secure a YES vote

Salmond says he’s ready to put his job on the line and even disband the SNP to help secure a YES vote

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Salmond says he'd step down as SNP leader if he thought that would help YES http://t.co/XRpXCGiZil pic.twitter.com/Ojdy5roX6A — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) August 20, 2014 Just ten days before the first postal ballots arrive In the wake of polling suggesting that Alex Salmond himself might be hurting the YES case it has been made known that the First Minister is saying publicly that if the price of winning independence is his job then he’s ready to step aside. This comes after…

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Nighthawks is now open

Nighthawks is now open

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Home of the web’s best political conversation Why not relax, and converse into the night on the day’s events in PB NightHawks. If you’re a lurker, why not delurk tonight. The round up of recent events (click on the links below, and it will bring up the relevant link) How Harry Potter has influenced the political values of the Millennial generation. Reading the books correlated with higher political tolerance, less predisposition to authoritarianism, greater support for equality, and greater opposition to…

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Even though the last 3 polls have edged a touch to an IndyRef YES the betting is still strongly on NO

Even though the last 3 polls have edged a touch to an IndyRef YES the betting is still strongly on NO

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Apart from a little pre-debate burst the markets remain stable Given the spate of polls over the weekend all showing that YES was edging up I was half-expecting a rally in the YES price on Betfair. It did move a touch but it is now back in the 6.8-7 range which in percentage terms converts to a 14-15% implied probability. The next event that could move things is the BBC TV debate next Monday. Salmond, surely will have learned from…

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Constituency polling from these key LAB-CON marginals could give us the best indicators so far

Constituency polling from these key LAB-CON marginals could give us the best indicators so far

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What’s happening the 2-4% range of marginals? Thanks to Lord Ashcroft and to a lesser extent Survation we are now seeing more full constituency polling in key marginals than has ever been available before. This is not the old-style marginals polling where maybe 100-200 are sampled in each seat and an overall swing figure is produced. What’s being made available are full single seat polls with proper sample sizes Lord Ashcroft has announced that a new round will be published…

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Nighthawks is now open

Nighthawks is now open

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Home of the web’s best political conversation Why not relax, and converse into the night on the day’s events in PB NightHawks. If you’re a lurker, why not delurk tonight. The round up of recent events (click on the links below, and it will bring up the relevant link) Does Cameron have an Iraq policy? Or is he just making it up? Iraq crisis: You can’t win military campaigns without boots on the ground  The problem with Harriet Harman’s proposed gambling tax…

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George needs to find a way of making UKIP voters less economically pessimistic

George needs to find a way of making UKIP voters less economically pessimistic

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An opportunity for the Tories in the 2015 budget? One of the great things about taking part in Edinburgh Festival of Politics was being able to meet up again with Professor John Curtice, who must be the county’s leading political scientist. Talking about UKIP voters he made a point that I’ve not really looked at before – their economic pessimism particularly when related to their own situations. Look at the chart above based on data from yesterday’s YouGov/ST poll. The…

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“An independence referendum is like a normal election on steroids”

“An independence referendum is like a normal election on steroids”

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Window display from shop in Edinburgh's Royal Mile pic.twitter.com/tq1c1MeNKw — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) August 18, 2014 YouGov/Times poll: After excluding DKs it’s YES 43%+3: NO 57%(-3) I’ve just got back from three days in Edinburgh where I was totally immersed in the momentous decision that the Scottish people are due to make in the referendum on September 18th. I was a panellist at the Festival of Politics which was held in the superb Scottish Parliament Building just across the road…

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