Sir Ed Davey certainly made a splash today
My fellow Whovians will be asking the same question as I. Is Sir Ed Davey a Sontaran? TSE
Bookmark this post and these tweets
Many thanks to Patrick Flynn of FocalData for compiling this analysis which explains why we have such variance in the polls and fits in with this morning’s thread. To quote Patrick, ‘These is your cheat sheet for identifying which pollster belongs in which group. Yellows and greens tend to show reduced Labour leads.’ It is worth reviewing polls when they come out to this cheat sheet. TSE Hat-tip to eek for posting this tweet on the previous thread
Polling errors
Back in 2012 when Mike Smithson first asked me to edit PB one thing he told me pay close attention to was the thoughts of his friend Lord Hayward, the man who has an excellent record in spotting polling failures, going back to the shy Tories of 1992. Today’s Guardian has the following report Some of the polls before the general election may be overstating Labour’s huge lead over the Conservatives, a Tory election expert has said. According to Robert Hayward,…
It has been an inauspicious start to the campaign for the Tories
TSE
The next chapter of the Scottish play?
The Telegraph are reporting that Scotland’s prosecutors could detonate a “political grenade” that derails the SNP’s general election campaign, a nationalist MP has warned them after they confirmed Nicola Sturgeon remains under investigation. Angus MacNeil urged the Crown Office to provide “clarity” on whether they will “hold off” until after the election on bringing any further charges over the investigation into the SNP’s finances. The Western Isles MP said any action over Operation Branchform before July 4 had “huge potential to change…
Never go full Corbyn 2019
One of the key lessons from 2019 is that no matter how flawed a leader you are, you can still win a healthy general election majority if your opponent is even more flawed and a bigger voter repellant. Whilst this isn’t all on Sunak, this is what happens when you’re leading the governing party of the last fourteen years it still some ‘achievement’ to outdo Jeremy Corbyn. One of the reasons Boris Johnson’s leadership ambitions are over is that towards…
Let’s talk about cats and one cat in particular
One of things that has a profound impact on betting is what percentage lead do Labour need to win a majority. After the last election the consensus was that Labour needed a lead of around 12% to win a majority of 2 at this election but things have changed. The SNP implosion in North Britain has helped Labour’s vote more efficient, the Tory implosion, and return of anti-Tory tactical vote are several reasons why I expect Labour’s vote to be…
Coming to a Lib Dem bar chart near you
If you think the Lib Dems are going to do better than the polls suggest then this finding from JL Partners will bring you great joy as it shows the Lib Dem vote share rising from 24% to 32% when voters are asked about tactical voting in their specific seats. Like Joe Alder I would caution against accepting this is a gospel as hypothetical polling can be very wrong as the Lib Dems can attest. Back in the run up…