Belated thanks to John Rentoul for his excellent article on last week’s forecast. This is not to say that I necessarily agree or disagree with his views on the desirability of particular election outcomes, just that I think it is a good discussion of lots of issues in politics and forecasting. Continue reading Fluctuations in polls and the timeliness of the forecast
All posts by electionsetc
Forecast update: 18 July 2014
Welcome to Elections Etc
What can today’s polls tell us about next year’s election? Quite a lot actually, but only if read carefully. That’s what we try to do here at Elections Etc, combining the polls with analysis of previous elections to predict what will happen on 7 May 2015. Continue reading Welcome to Elections Etc
Forecast update: 11 July 2014
Why is the 2015 general election forecast trending?
A few people have asked me this question about my forecast. The trends are definitely there as you can see from the graphs below. But since they are well within the very broad prediction intervals, there is a danger of reading too much into them. Certainly we are far from having enough information to say the model isn’t working well for this electoral cycle. Continue reading Why is the 2015 general election forecast trending?
Forecast update: 4 July 2014
What do the 2014 European and local election results mean for the opinion polls and next year’s general election?
Labour emerged narrowly ahead of the Conservatives in both the local and European Parliament elections. I discussed the implications of the local election results in a previous post on Friday. The results of the Euros only came through last night. This post considers the lessons learnt from both elections for the general election, including the likely accuracy of the opinion polls. Continue reading What do the 2014 European and local election results mean for the opinion polls and next year’s general election?
Unraveling the 2014 local election changes in the share of the vote: who suffered most from UKIP?
A naïve glance at the overall changes in the share of the vote since 2010 in the graph below suggests that UKIP’s big gains came as the expense of the biggest losers, the Liberal Democrats. Continue reading Unraveling the 2014 local election changes in the share of the vote: who suffered most from UKIP?
What do the 2014 local election results mean for next year’s general election?
The Labour lead of 2 percentage points in the BBC’s projected national share of the local election vote (PNS) is too narrow a lead for Labour to suggest they will be ahead in a general election next year. Continue reading What do the 2014 local election results mean for next year’s general election?
BBC Projected National Share of Vote 2014
The BBC Projected National Share of the vote just announced is Con 29, Lab 31, LD 13, UKIP 17, Others 10.
The PNS is an attempt to estimate what the share of the vote would be if the whole of GB had local elections and if the three main Westminster parties had fielded candidates in all wards, as they do in general elections. For more details see here and here. Continue reading BBC Projected National Share of Vote 2014
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