Political

The best post I’ve read on political polling in a long time

As regular readers will know, I’m a big fan of the way Deborah Mattinson uses focus groups* to see politics from the perspective of the voter, not the Londoner politico.

Her latest piece with Zoe Tyndall once again is packed full of insights:

How do these voters see politics? The short answer is that politics does not really fit into their lives at all. When thinking about the big issues they tend not to look to politicians to help…

Many voters do not understand how politics works. Some find the constant change, impenetrable language and many layers of political structures complicated and confusing. Jane’s view was typical: ‘You see on the news there’s another big announcement, another set of elections, there’s so many layers. European MPs, local MPs, the cabinet, even these police elections now. And they all just speak in this jargon and you watch and you think, I have no idea what is going on here.’

The combative nature of politics compounds this, suggesting that politicians do not have the answers either – or how could they all disagree so intensely? ‘I wrote down “playground”. It’s just – you see them on the TV, arguing over and over and over and you just think, “I’ve seen this before, that’s the kids in the playground, bickering”.’ Others agree: ‘It’s about the arguing for them – they just want to slate the other side, they don’t want to concentrate on sorting out the mess this country’s in.’ The conclusion? ‘It’s just a mess, isn’t it? How am I meant to understand what’s really going on or how I can pick the ones that are really going to be best for me?’…

As many voters struggle to engage with abstract concepts, so they openly reject some of the values statements that politicians would most like to be associated with. Instead we found that selecting the right symbolic policies can help to cut though the cynicism and showcase party values in a relevant and credible way.

You can read the full article over on the Progress website.

* I await the comments from psephological pedants complaining that focus groups aren’t polling…

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