Political

One of my most quoted polling findings is no longer true

One of the most important things to understand in political campaigning is that the views of political activists and the views of voters are not only not the same, but often very different. And with far more voters than activists, you need to start with an understanding of, and respect for, the difference.

Which is why one of the polling figures that I’ve most often quoted is the YouGov tracker on whether or not people think the Conservatives are extreme.

The findings have been consistently very different from what you’d hear from Lib Dem (or Labour, Green or nationalist) party activists. Or indeed from Twitter.

Until now, with the latest figures finally showing more of the public think the Conservatives are extreme than moderate:

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4 responses to “One of my most quoted polling findings is no longer true”

  1. Great stuff as ever Mark.

    Is there any shift in polling in Scotland since the glorious Kwarteng/Truss budget please?

  2. The unfortunate cancelation of our autumn conference, and the fortunate timing of the Labour one when Tory unrest was high, led to the vast switch to Labour in opinion polls (now just over half).
    But would it have been so high had we held our conference a week earlier? Would we have registered the same impact as we did following amazing by-election results.
    Most probably not, given the boring content of many of the motions selected for so-called debate.
    Which means that at York, two days after the Ides of March we should debate more exciting topics on issues that make an impact on the media and the public.

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