Conservatives accused in poll fixing scandal

It’s a common complaint that when phone polls run by newspapers produce odd results the papers often publish them anyway. So full credit to one local paper for taking a rather close look at the results of its phone poll over whether the pay-off given to Northampton Council’s (now former) Chief Executive should be made public:

THE CONSERVATIVES have been accused of trying to rig a Chronicle & Echo phone poll by deluging the newspaper’s vote line with multiple calls … An amazing 46 per cent of the “no” votes came from two phones owned by the deputy leader of the council, Councillor David Palethorpe (Con, Billing). [Northampton Chronicle and Echo]

This should all be good news for the Liberal Democrat team who have been making big progress in recent years in Northampton and have an excellent chance of more gains in May.

UPDATE: It’s not only phone polls to be beware of.