Electionwatch
Tweetminster buzzing over election prediction
Another day, another declaration in support of the power of social media analysis in assessing public opinion – this time from Tweetminster, which has hailed as a success its attempt to predict the outcome of the UK general election based on Twitter mentions of candidates.
The morning after the night before
So how did the polls do at predicting the general election result? Well, it certainly wasn’t a disaster. On the whole, the final polls got the Conservative and Labour votes right, but overestimated support for the Lib Dems and underestimated the smaller parties.
Decision day
How will the outcome of the 2010 election affect the market research industry?
Virtual voting
Angus Reid Public Opinion is running an unusual poll in the run up to tomorrow’s general election.
Beyond polling
We took part in a discussion on the Guardian’s website today about careers in political polling and market research. In response to a questioner about how the industry’s ability to recruit might be affected if pollsters fail to predict the election result accurately, we suggested it might be pretty damaging. But perhaps not.
Simon Danczuk: Bigotgate's forgotten victim
Today’s Bigotgate furore has been part farce, part tragedy. Meanwhile Research can’t help but feel a pang of pity for Simon Danczuk, the Labour Party’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Rochdale.
What the next government needs to do to help SMEs
This week’s UK TV election debate focuses on the economy. Guest blogger Maggie Drye (pictured), owner of Insitas, will be tuning in, hoping to hear pledges from the party leaders to support small businesses. But will they say the right things, if anything?
Never mind the numbers
Statistics are getting a bad press in the current election campaign.
Six out of ten people don't care about polls
Six out of ten people don’t pay any attention to opinion polls, Ipsos Mori’s Ben Page told the Today programme this morning.
Why the thirst to be first can leave you high and dry
YouGov appeared as a trending topic on Twitter last night as the Twitterati took up arms against the online pollster after its instant reaction poll for the second leaders’ debate – the first to be published – reported a win for David Cameron. This, it seems, was the wrong result.
Another day, another accusation of polling bias
Another day, another accusation of polling bias. YouGov is once again defending itself.
Welcome to our Electionwatch blog
This year’s election is a tough one to call, and it looks like the role of research in trying to predict and understand the outcome will be more prominent than ever.
