What will it do to the political climate? One of the things that we see repeatedly is that it’s often not the numbers in polls that matter but how the findings are covered in the media that has commissioned them. So on a morning when the Guardian is reporting its ICM poll with a sharp cut-back in the Tory lead the big slant is about “Cameron closing the deal“. This is based on non-voting questions about how respondents rated him…
CON 42%(42) LAB 29%(25) LD 19%(21) OTHERS 10% (12) [LAB/CON 69% (59.5)] But they are still in the 20s with the Tories in the 40s The latest survey in the longest standing polling series in the UK – ICM in the Guardian – has some good news for Mr. Brown following Labour’s by election success in Glasgow last Thursday. Although the Tories are on a standstill at 42 Labour sees a sharp move upwards of four points. My guess is…
“Sorry, no, I have never said I’m anti-women. I have got absolutely nothing against women. Who cooks my lunch? Who cooks my dinner? How did my wonderful three children appear? Women, you can’t do without them. My god, take my wife.†What does she do for a living? “What does she do? She looks after me. Looks after the children. Runs the house.†The above is attributed to SW Norfolk Tory big-wig, Sir Jeremy Bagge, in a Telegraph interview by…
How less than one in five are ex-Tory voters This is the first part of some analysis I’ve been doing on the rise of “others” – UKIP, the BNP and the Greens – and the impact that they might have at the next general election. A big question to start with is where is UKIP support coming from? What can we find out from the polling data? The following numbers are based on the aggregation of all the relevant data…
Channel 4 What’ll it do to the top seat betting market? Word reaches me that Channel 4’s Dispatches programme tomorrow night might be helpful to the the Lib Dems in Watford – the constituency which, according to Ladbrokes, has seen the heaviest general election betting. I have not got any details whatsoever but we know that Oborne never gets involved with stuff that is run of the mill. Watford is currently Labour-held but with both the Tories and Lib Dems…
CON 39%(40) LAB 25%(27) LD 17%(18) OTHERS 19% (15) [LAB/CON 64.1% (67.5)] Another week goes by and two more polls come out which will add to the discomfort at Number 10. The first from Comres is above has the Tories slipping a point to below 40, Labour slipping two points to 25 with “others” seeing a massive boost to 19% – which is the biggest proportion in any survey since the EU election effect had worked its way out of…
A Guest slot by Jack W (PBers in their quiet, contemplative moments will no doubt worry how a PB Titan spends his reflective moments after having polished his betting halo, plotting the next Jacobite Rising and single handedly erasing the balance of payments deficit by stint of fine pie exports alone. You need concern yourself no more. For having been prevailed upon to lift the literary status of PB to Nobel literary standards it is clear that my every spare…
Why won’t the pre-1997 polls comparison die? Michael Thrasher gave an interview for Sky News yesterday afternoon in which he built upon the article written for their website, inferring that the election is heading towards a hung parliament. In it, he made various claims and inferences that really shouldn’t be allowed to stand and which I find quite astonishing from such a senior expert in the subject. To summarise: He claimed that the Tories are struggling to break through 40%. In fact,…