Happy birthday, The Week in Polls!

On this day in 2022, the first edition of The Week in Polls appeared. My weekly guide to what you need to know about political polling was first a series of pilot blog posts, then an email newsletter on Revue and now, after Elon Musk shut down Revue, a weekly missive via Substack.

Looking back to that first edition, it’s sadly not a surprise that it highlighted poor media coverage of political polling. But I hope that readers of the newsletter have become better armed to spot and remedy such poor coverage, helping make the most of the polls they come across.

Done right, polling is both illuminating and egalitarian. Opinion polls are fundamentally democratic: one person, one say. As political scientist Sidney Verba put it: “Surveys produce just what democracy is supposed to produce – equal representation of all citizens.”

But only if polls are conducted and consumed with care. Which I hope my newsletter helps with, such as with my most popular stories in the last year, including what polling really tells us about support for trans rights and who is willing to consider voting Lib Dem.

Many thanks to everyone who has been a reader, and especially to the kind folk who have signed-up for the paid-for edition. Thank you also to everyone who has replied with questions, corrections or additional information.

Though I do remain a little baffled by those who sign up for an email about polling and then delight in replying saying how sure they are that polling is nonsense…

As a little birthday offer, you can sign up for a two week free trial of the paid-for version here and get 10 extra polling insights each week to go with the main story from the free edition.

Or you can sign up for the free edition here: