Is Watkins trying to do to Labour what Woolas did to him? One of the elements of September’s election court ruling on Phil Woolas was over the then Labour candidate’s claim that the Lib Dem was not telling the truth over “being a local”. Now, in the final couple of days of the campaign the yellow standard-bearer is trying to make an issue over the veracity of his Labour opponent’s claim to “be local”. In a leaflet he picks up…
Poll/publication Date CON % LAB % LD % ComRes/Independent (phone) 09/01/11 34 42 12 ComRes/IoS-S.Mirror(Online) 17/12/10 37 39 11 ComRes/Independent (Phone) 29/11/10 36 40 12 ComRes/Indy on Sunday (Online) 19/11/10 37 38 13 ComRes/Independent (Phone) 31/10/10 35 37 16 ComRes/Indy on Sunday (Online) 15/10/10 40 34 14 ComRes/Independent (Online) 01/10/10 39 36 15 ComRes/Indy on Sunday (Online) 16/09/10 37 35 15 ComRes/Independent (Phone) 05/09/10 38 34 18 ComRes/Mirror/GMTV (Phone) 15/08/10 39 33 15 ComRes/Independent (Phone) 08/08/10 39 33 16 ComRes/Independent…
Ged Wilmot/Saddleworth News Facebook page What can be done to get more people voting? As the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election reaches fever pitch, I wanted to use my regular slot to rant about turnout. A truly fascinating subject, I am sure you agree! How many electors do we think will vote next week? Does it really matter if the turnout is low? And if it does, should we be doing anything about it? At the general election, turnout in…
Jack Straw addresses a meeting of one – Channel 4 Why are voters keeping it so close to their chests? A former Tory MP who has been doing extensive phone canvassing for the by-election told me on Friday of how difficult it was getting any response or indication from those he had contacted in the constituency. He’d made dozens of contacts but call after call ended in the same way. He put it all down to “northern reticence” and maybe…
Is this why by-election polling can be so challenging? When the three Old & Sad polls were coming out on Saturday evening an astute observer on UKPR wrote that we won’t really be able to compare these surveys against the actual result because the fact these three polls have been published could itself change people’s votes. That’s spot on and why all three parties were very jumpy as news of the numbers trickled out. The Labour strategy in the days…
David Cameron David Cameron “doing well/badly†(YouGov) All (Dec 17) CON voters LAB voters LD voters Well 47 (-2) 96 9 81 Badly 45 (+1) 4 87 16 Ed Miliband Ed Miliband “doing well/badly†(YouGov) All (Dec 17) CON voters LAB voters LD voters Well 28(-2) 12 59 22 Badly 49(+5) 67 26 60 Nick Clegg Nick Clegg “doing well/badly†(YouGov) All (Dec 17) CON voters LAB voters LD voters Well 30(nc) 61 6 80 Badly 60 (nc) 31 91…
What do you think will happen this year? With the new year just over a week old and with Oldham East on Thursday, it’s time to sharpen your punditry skills and make your predictions for what could be a choppy year in British politics. Entries close 7pm Friday 14th January As before the competition is being hosted by the Election Game. If anyone would like to take part, the 2011 season is now underway – the Leaders & Finance game…
Both have the Tories well behind Still to come tonight are details of the Survation poll. The question is whether these numbers – the Populus 46/29/15 and the ICM 44/27/18 will have any impact on tactical voting in the final phase of the campaign. It is also interesting that Populus, which did name the candidates in the question have a a LD margin over the Tories that is a fair bit bigger than the ICM one. When we get the…