27 July 2009

Polls are no longer news, but this is important

Anthony Wells points out that there was a poll in the Sunday People yesterday which everyone missed.  The top line figures are:

CON 40%(-2), LAB 25%(nc), LDEM 20%(+2), Others 16%

Even the mainstream media failed to pick it up.  Perhaps we are all getting over reliant with information being available on-line or we should admit to not reading the Sunday People.

Moving on.  Daniel Finkelstein’s analysis of Norwich North is important and explains why Norwich North was such a disaster for the Labour party:

A good performance for the Greens and UKIP was always likely to mean a bigger Tory majority, not, as everyone seemed to assume on Friday, a smaller one.

Yes, these two parties took votes from the Conservatives and depressed the Tory share of the vote. But they took even more from Labour. They contributed to a catastrophic Labour result, which meant Labour lost by a landslide even with the Tories below 40 per cent of the vote.

They could perform a similar role in a General Election.

The logic works and puts paid to Brown’s theory that the by-election was a one-off due the expenses scandal.

There is no end of the lesson for the Labour party.

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