Take Care. The implications of the Conservative policy on social care

Take Care. The implications of the Conservative policy on social care

Embed from Getty Images General elections aren’t usually about big ideas. They’re usually occasions for the parties to try to come up with visual representations of their opponents that sting, for frenetic arguments about trivial events and for their leaders to pose in unlikely photo-opportunities. Voters are expected to react, not to think. So Conservative supporters have reacted with trepidation to the focus on their plans for long term care. This was not an afterthought but a flagship policy, mentioned…

Read More Read More

Download the Rallings and Thrasher Election 2015 book for FREE

Download the Rallings and Thrasher Election 2015 book for FREE

Your essential reference for election night The leading psephologists, Profs Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, are making their reference work on last General Election, Election 2015 Results and Tables, available online so people can download it. It is in PDF format and runs to 437 pages. This is a great resource which I’ve got permanently open in a window on my laptop as well as on my phone. The book can be downloaded here. Their website, The Elections Centre, is…

Read More Read More

Remember that standard GE2017 polls are for GB only and exclude Northern Ireland

Remember that standard GE2017 polls are for GB only and exclude Northern Ireland

Your cut out and keep guide With 20 days to go it is time for my regular general election reminder to punters betting on vote shares. The standard voting intention surveys that we see are, unless stated otherwise, for Great Britain only and exclude Northern Ireland. This is because politics in the province operates with a very different party structure and generally GB based parties do not compete. So the key numbers with which to compare new polls and to…

Read More Read More

Looking at Labour’s share of the vote in the polls and what it means

Looking at Labour’s share of the vote in the polls and what it means

Wikipedia GE2017 poll chart All the mood music is pointing one way. Both Labour and Conservative sources suggest a meltdown in Labour’s heartlands. The Conservatives have put out rumours that they are trying to take seats such as Leeds East, West Bromwich East and Bolsover. If they were to succeed, Labour would be reduced to a rump. Conventional wisdom has it that the Conservatives are hoovering up the UKIP vote in Labour heartlands and taking a fair chunk of Labour…

Read More Read More

Local By-Election Preview May 18th 2017 (T-21 days until Election 2017)

Local By-Election Preview May 18th 2017 (T-21 days until Election 2017)

Reeth and Arkengarthdale on Richmondshire (Ind defence, death of sitting member) Result of council at last election (2015): Conservatives 21, Independents 7, Richmondshire Independents 4, Liberal Democrats 2 (Conservative majority of 8) Result of ward at last election (2015): Ind 544 (76%), Green 116 (16%), Lab 56 (8%) EU Referendum Result (2016): REMAIN 11,945 (43%) LEAVE 15,691 (57%) on a turnout of 75% Candidates duly nominated: Ian Scott (Con) Result: Conservative GAIN from Independent, unopposed Enfield Lock on Enfield (Lab…

Read More Read More

Perhaps I’ve judged Corbyn wrong as new Ipsos MORI poll sees Corbyn’s Labour catapult 8% to 34%

Perhaps I’ve judged Corbyn wrong as new Ipsos MORI poll sees Corbyn’s Labour catapult 8% to 34%

Latest @IpsosMORI poll for The @standardnews Con 49 (nc) Lab 34 (+8) LD 7 (-7) Greens 3 (+2) UKIP 2 (-2)https://t.co/duZvfM95v3 — TSE (@TSEofPB) May 18, 2017   Today’s Ipsos MORI poll lived it to its being a cracker hype. Having been a trenchant critic of Corbyn I’m struggling to comprehend a world where he polls a share of the vote close to that which delivered majorities for both Tony Blair and David Cameron. As it stands the Tories won’t…

Read More Read More

New YouGov poll carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday has CON lead down to 13%

New YouGov poll carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday has CON lead down to 13%

And Corbyn’s “Best PM ratings” continue to rise With so many surveys coming out from so many firms at the moment a key factor is to look at the fieldwork dates. This latest one from YouGov was carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday and sees the Tory lead at its smallest in any poll from any pollster this month. The LD share continues to tumble while the UKIP is double what it was at the weekend. The fieldwork was carried…

Read More Read More

NEW PB/Polling Matters podcast: Discussing today’s GfK / Business Insider survey results

NEW PB/Polling Matters podcast: Discussing today’s GfK / Business Insider survey results

On this week’s PB/Polling Matters podcast Keiran is joined by Adam Bienkov and Adam Payne from Business Insider UK to discuss today’s GfK/Business Insider poll results. The panel discuss the scale of the Conservative lead, what’s happened to the Lib Dems and why Jeremy Corbyn’s approval ratings are improving (and why it probably won’t matter). They also discuss what’s behind May’s approval rating plus interesting findings from the survey that suggest Tony Blair is less popular than Jeremy Corbyn. The discussion…

Read More Read More