If I had listened to financial markets analysts the way some on here adhere to pollsters, I probably wouldn't be posting this from Barbados. Great place to follow the results. Five hours behind, bbc 24 on tap, as much rum as I can drink. Oh and balcony overlooking Caribbean Sea.
I'll drink to that, from my easy chair overlooking a rainy south Manchester back garden! Good work, sounds like you're living it up.
@guardian_clark: ICM detail 2: In marginal battlegrounds where Con were 2% ahead in 2010, Lab has 11% lead today. Sub-samples, for sure, but not tiny ones
That's a killer "stat" for the Tories and really shows how their campaign has failed miserably.
I am not sure how the Cameroons will spin a result like that, economic fundamentals means they should be 2/3 points ahead. Unfortunately I fear the neocons like Osborne, Gove etc. will stay on.
Ed winning would certainly smash the Blairite consensus, for that be grateful.
I wonder if the attempted character assassination of Ed Miliband has backfired; generated sympathy with the public and, some ways, might have benefited Labour.
Straightforward question to veteran PBers - has there ever been as great a disparity between polling and most-seats betting markets as we're seeing now?
If Scotland has not after all gone SNP en masse and the Tories are having a tougher time than expected south of the border, then let's not forget Ed could find himself with or close to a majority tomorrow. The momentum is with Labour not the Tories.
I thought whilst Cameron in his polling station photo was all smiles, Sam looked like death.
I am not sure how the Cameroons will spin a result like that, economic fundamentals means they should be 2/3 points ahead. Unfortunately I fear the neocons like Osborne, Gove etc. will stay on.
Not sure about Gove but Osborne goes down with Cameron. He's finished.
Straightforward question to veteran PBers - has there ever been as great a disparity between polling and most-seats betting markets as we're seeing now?
In 2010 the markets were predicting Labour to get 225 and they got 258.
So either shy Tories are really really shy and/or the pollsters still haven't found a way to account for them - not a single one of them has managed it - or there has been a late swing to Labour, or we have been witnessing a shy Labour effect.
Straightforward question to veteran PBers - has there ever been as great a disparity between polling and most-seats betting markets as we're seeing now?
Yes. During the election that never was. Some of the prices were well out of sync with what the polls were showing.
It was like punters thought no way do the voters really like Brown.
I wonder if the attempted character assassination of Ed Miliband has backfired; generated sympathy with the public and, some ways, might have benefited Labour.
Yes, IF there has been a late swing then I think that could be the cause. Brits don't take kindly to bullying.
Straightforward question to veteran PBers - has there ever been as great a disparity between polling and most-seats betting markets as we're seeing now?
In 2010 the markets were predicting Labour to get 225 and they got 258.
Romney/Obama - although we know now that this was to some extent contrived by the Romney team.
@guardian_clark: ICM detail 2: In marginal battlegrounds where Con were 2% ahead in 2010, Lab has 11% lead today. Sub-samples, for sure, but not tiny ones
That's a killer "stat" for the Tories and really shows how their campaign has failed miserably.
The problem is that the sample size really is too small to infer anything. Polls are also indicating that there are geographical differences and this does not seem to have been factored into this statement.
Interestingly most respondents in the poll still expect the Conservatives to win.
Gold standard etc etc etc....Miliband 35% strategy looking good...could be an early night after all.
There is no question if the poll is right then Labour win easily. Lose 40 seats in Scotland and gain 80 in England? But this is not a new poll is it? They have just continued the polling on from the last one. No idea what that means but it was not whaty the '35% strategy' was originally based on
@guardian_clark: Watch this space for the final final ICM poll which I hope won't be too long coming, and provides one final twist @martinboon
if lab move ahead then the impression of a late swing but to Labour will be complete.
what fun....
There has been no late swing.
I thought the Question Time debate was a disaster ! The man can't eat a bacon sandwich. He knifed his brother in the back. Didn't he say the Labour Party "did not overspend".
Surely, there could not be any late swing to Labour. Could it ?
There could. Some Labour voters simply don't give a stuff about Labour always wrecking the economy. They vote Labour because through taxes and incompetence, Labour will make life worse for people they envy. And that is their goal in voting.
This is why so many will still vote Labour in Rotherham. If you see the role of government as being to make other people worse off, so as to equalise them with yourself, why would you care about Labour turning a blind eye to paedophile rape gangs? What's that got to do with anything? The main thing is they'll bash the south-east.
I wonder if the attempted character assassination of Ed Miliband has backfired; generated sympathy with the public and, some ways, might have benefited Labour.
Of course it has, people don't like bullying
One of my friends is a Tory voter and he hates Miliband but even he said the piss taking of him is just too much
I wonder if the attempted character assassination of Ed Miliband has backfired; generated sympathy with the public and, some ways, might have benefited Labour.
It seems to me that it is Nicola Sturgeon who has firmed the labour vote if that is the case. There are many who want to end austerity and would view an Ed Miliband government as being forced along this path and that to vote Ed Miliband would de facto get Nicola S
What i don't understand is how a consistent and clear trend to the Tories in the phone polls since Jan/Feb would level out and all return to Labour in the last 36 hours.
@guardian_clark: ICM detail 2: In marginal battlegrounds where Con were 2% ahead in 2010, Lab has 11% lead today. Sub-samples, for sure, but not tiny ones
That's a killer "stat" for the Tories and really shows how their campaign has failed miserably.
If average swing in marginal > 6%, even minus Scotland.
I don't know. That could be something else altogether.
Straightforward question to veteran PBers - has there ever been as great a disparity between polling and most-seats betting markets as we're seeing now?
Yes. During the election that never was. Some of the prices were well out of sync with what the polls were showing.
It was like punters thought no way do the voters really like Brown.
Interesting - thanks. I'll be enjoying the PB boards this evening.
I wonder if the attempted character assassination of Ed Miliband has backfired; generated sympathy with the public and, some ways, might have benefited Labour.
Of course it has, people don't like bullying
One of my friends is a Tory voter and he hates Miliband but even he said the piss taking of him is just too much
Enough to make Labour your 2nd preference ahead of the tories?
Lab Most Seats in England still 10/1 at Fred, Tote and Boyle. Combine with a basket of constituency bets on the Tories in Con-held Labour targets 50 or greater
I am waiting until Rod Crosby runs another 10 million monte carlos before I give up on 100 percent Tory overall majority.Rod has an enviable track record.(sent from my mobile whilst GOTV)
@martinboon: Nearly all polls pointing to Labour late swing. Didn't see that coming.
Some of us did (if it happens). I mentioned a few days ago that I wouldn't be surprised to see a Labour majority, not least because voters might well react to the Tories' frantic campaign to stop Sturgeon bullying Milliband by voting Labour rather than Tory.
The Tories really should have campaigned on why it made sense to vote for them. Negative campaigning can only get you so far, I would have thought.
Still, we'll find out soon enough.
If Labour do get in it will be interesting to see how they manage the expectations they have built up because I'm quite certain that they will end up taxing and cutting far far more than they have said they will. So a lot of people who thought that Labour would help them or at least not cost them will be disappointed.
They really have not been that dark, but that is still a very vital statistic.
Tory hopes seemes contingent on getting a boost from the economy (if they have, it hasn't been by enough), Ed being crap (he's not been, for the most part) and Labour voters not turning out (which the above says they are).
Chances of Tory government edging down to 1.5% now on my made up metric.
I am not sure how the Cameroons will spin a result like that, economic fundamentals means they should be 2/3 points ahead. Unfortunately I fear the neocons like Osborne, Gove etc. will stay on.
Ed winning would certainly smash the Blairite consensus, for that be grateful.
If the Tories poll 36% (less than 1% down on 2010) after five years of austerity, that's a pretty good effort.
Especially if UKIP poll over 10%, which looks likely.
UKIP look as though they will cost the Tories this GE. Democracy at work, whether anybody likes it or not.
'Tory election planners were expecting things to be better than this by now. Some suggested last summer would be the "crossover" point, when the Tories clearly overtook Labour. Then the autumn was the moment, but It didn't come then either. And now, after two months of attacks on Mr Miliband and rehearsal of the key Tory election themes, the party is still waiting. "We're stuck," is how one minister puts it. "Nothing we've done yet has moved anyone," says an MP. There's no panic or even much unhappiness to those observations. On the whole, Tories still have a Micawberish faith that Something Will Turn Up, that as election day approaches, voters will simply wake up to a binary Cameron-Miliband choice and vote Tory in droves.'
What i don't understand is how a consistent and clear trend to the Tories in the phone polls since Jan/Feb would level out and all return to Labour in the last 36 hours.
Makes no sense to me at all.
Nothing has changed in the last 36 hours or even two four weeks.
The only small difference that has been was recorded in the beginning of the campaign when the Great British public found out that Ed Miliband did not eat babies after all. There was a one-off jump and it has remained like that.
I wonder if the attempted character assassination of Ed Miliband has backfired; generated sympathy with the public and, some ways, might have benefited Labour.
It seems to me that it is Nicola Sturgeon who has firmed the labour vote if that is the case. There are many who want to end austerity and would view an Ed Miliband government as being forced along this path and that to vote Ed Miliband would de facto get Nicola S
What happens when there isn't actually an end to austerity though?
What i don't understand is how a consistent and clear trend to the Tories in the phone polls since Jan/Feb would level out and all return to Labour in the last 36 hours.
Makes no sense to me at all.
Labour undecideds have clearly made up their minds in the last few hours/days.
I really cant understand the betfair most seats market.
Despite all the evidence of a lot of polling in the past 24 hours that the parties are pretty much neck & neck and fairly convincing evidence of a firming up of the labour vote, there are still significant numbers of people prepared to give odds of over 4/1 against labour will having the most seats. I am happy to admit on the polling it is not clear who will come out with most seats, you can make the case either way. However that would suggest the odds for the tories & labour should be similar. I know that there is a thought that tory inclined voters are more inclined to bet than labour ones (I must admit to doing fairly well on the seats market last time as I was very confident labour would be 250+ and the spread market very much under priced labour) but this really makes very little sense.
Is there anyone on here who is offering 5.3 on labour having the most seats and if so could you explain your reasoning?
Well I can't explain it, JGC, but I will have a guess.
The market is being played by punters with little experience of political betting. They see the main Parties are virtually tied and think that with Labour losing 40 or so seats in Scotland that must make the Conservatives favorites for most seats.
Anyway, 5.3 is a daft price for Labour and I've been backing that judgement with hard-earned all morning.
Me too, just seems odd
A point perhaps worth noting, JGC, is that the Most Seats market has been fairly lightly traded - only £300,000 since yesterday afternoon. You get more than that on a seller at Lingfield.
Punters waiting for developments? Personally I'd have expected this morning's polls to have shifted the price more, but if it was all too predictable nobody would bet at all.
One interesting thing. The triumphalism and despair on this site is the exact opposite of 2010, when Tory majority seemed assumed by many and Lab meltdown. We know what happened.....
What i don't understand is how a consistent and clear trend to the Tories in the phone polls since Jan/Feb would level out and all return to Labour in the last 36 hours.
Makes no sense to me at all.
Labour undecideds have clearly made up their minds in the last few hours/days.
It called the Southern Observer endorsement around these parts...
I wonder if the attempted character assassination of Ed Miliband has backfired; generated sympathy with the public and, some ways, might have benefited Labour.
Yes, IF there has been a late swing then I think that could be the cause. Brits don't take kindly to bullying.
Lord Bell interview in the Telegraph saying that the Fallon attack was a big mistake.
I agree - and if it goes badly tonight for them CCHQ (and News UK) need to think reflect on how they spurned an open goal on economic competency (rightly or wrongly) to instead poke fun at Miliband for looking funny and not adhering to primogeniture - minor-public-school bully behaviour.
I wonder if the attempted character assassination of Ed Miliband has backfired; generated sympathy with the public and, some ways, might have benefited Labour.
Of course it has, people don't like bullying
One of my friends is a Tory voter and he hates Miliband but even he said the piss taking of him is just too much
Enough to make Labour your 2nd preference ahead of the tories?
Ooh none of the above!
27/113 unprompted kippers in dag and rainham so far
Lab most seats looks so wrong that I am hesitating putting money on it as surely the market cannot be that out of whack with reality?
Alastair, I stopped having thoughts like that after watching One Man go off 6/4 favorite in the Gold Cup when all the evidence showed plainly the horse could not run a yard beyond three miles.
What i don't understand is how a consistent and clear trend to the Tories in the phone polls since Jan/Feb would level out and all return to Labour in the last 36 hours.
Makes no sense to me at all.
Taken at face value it looks as though ex-Labour Green supporters have been more prepared to return to the big party fold than ex-Tory UKIP supporters.
Many of the online polls (eg Populus) always heavily downweighted the Greens, and so this could explain why they aren't picking up the same late swing.
Anyway - about twelve hours until Nuneaton is expected to declare, and we will see how things look then.
I wonder if the attempted character assassination of Ed Miliband has backfired; generated sympathy with the public and, some ways, might have benefited Labour.
You might be right. I think sympathy is a powerful motivator. I think John Major got a sympathy vote in 1992 when he took his little soap box out and stood on it. My mother said "Oh bless!" and voted for him. First and only time she voted Tory.
It would be funny if it was the Mail and the Sun wot won it - for Ed!
I wonder if the attempted character assassination of Ed Miliband has backfired; generated sympathy with the public and, some ways, might have benefited Labour.
It seems to me that it is Nicola Sturgeon who has firmed the labour vote if that is the case. There are many who want to end austerity and would view an Ed Miliband government as being forced along this path and that to vote Ed Miliband would de facto get Nicola S
What happens when there isn't actually an end to austerity though?
Two Bank of England members have said today that tax rises will not close the deficit. A labour government will be overwhelmed by the markets and will be forced as per Greece to cut spending and by that time some banks and non doms will have left and created big funding gaps for NHS and Education spending.
One interesting thing. The triumphalism and despair on this site is the exact opposite of 2010, when Tory majority seemed assumed by many and Lab meltdown. We know what happened.....
The Tories seem gloomily resigned to a Labour win and vice versa, with both hoping but not expecting to be pleasantly surprised.
What i don't understand is how a consistent and clear trend to the Tories in the phone polls since Jan/Feb would level out and all return to Labour in the last 36 hours.
Makes no sense to me at all.
Nothing has changed in the last 36 hours or even two four weeks.
The only small difference that has been was recorded in the beginning of the campaign when the Great British public found out that Ed Miliband did not eat babies after all. There was a one-off jump and it has remained like that.
Arguably the key failing in the Blue campaign was the inability to decide whether the line was "Ed eats babies" or "Ed is too incompetent to eat babies and looks stupid when he tries".
The polls more accurately reflect pollsters career concerns than they do voters concerns. If they are right everybody does a lap of honor. If they are wrong nobody takes a bath
In homage to Avery, here's a yellow box with the latest forecasts from various academics/pundits, and a slection of PB regulars. Apologies for any mistakes (in a couple of cases I've had to guess the PC/Respect figures):
What i don't understand is how a consistent and clear trend to the Tories in the phone polls since Jan/Feb would level out and all return to Labour in the last 36 hours.
Makes no sense to me at all.
LD-Lab switchers.
The subsample numbers are right at the top of the range on ICM and Comres. It would be helpful to see Ipsos.
Quite where these people are concentrated remains to be seen. I'd guess that a lot are in big cities.
Mr ghedebrav, my aim is get people not to get too hung up on polls. I genuinely think. This is an election to go with your instincts.
My instinct is "I don't know what's going to happen" other than more LDs will hang on than polls suggest, and SNP won't be quite as successful as the Scottish swing shows.
Also have a slight fancy that UKIP will win four seats.
Similar in 1945 General Election, when Churchill compared Atlee's social reform program to the Gestapo. The Nazi comparison horrified and shock voters. It was a little OTT.
What i don't understand is how a consistent and clear trend to the Tories in the phone polls since Jan/Feb would level out and all return to Labour in the last 36 hours.
Makes no sense to me at all.
It makes perfect sense. Many of the pollsters filters are based around "likelyhood to vote" or whether "dont knows" will actually vote at all. If what has been happening over the past 48 hours is that a significant number of voters have made up their mind to definitely vote especially if they did not vote last time, that would easily account for the polling changes we have seen. My only caveat would be that yougov did not pick this up and they have designed their current polling regime exactly to pick up this sort of late movement, however their figures are very much in line with all the others.
On a subjective note my feeling from knocking on a large number of doors over the past 6 months was that there were more genuine "undecideds2 (ie not those who just dont want to tell you there not going to vote for you) than I have come across previously. I even had a chap last night who said he was going to sit down after dinner to read both the labour & tory manifestos to come to a final decision.
We need to wait another 15 or so hours to find out if all this is right
@britainelects: We've just received word that ballot papers for the Darlington constituency have omitted one or more the parliamentary candidates.
LOL
what happens to GE bets in this situation - ie if some seats have to be rerun? - will we have to wait until all re-runs are complete for bets to settle?
I am not sure how the Cameroons will spin a result like that, economic fundamentals means they should be 2/3 points ahead. Unfortunately I fear the neocons like Osborne, Gove etc. will stay on.
Ed winning would certainly smash the Blairite consensus, for that be grateful.
If the Tories poll 36% (less than 1% down on 2010) after five years of austerity, that's a pretty good effort.
Especially if UKIP poll over 10%, which looks likely.
UKIP look as though they will cost the Tories this GE. Democracy at work, whether anybody likes it or not.
To be honest, Fenster, I'm not sure how democratic a FPTP system can be.
It looks increasingly like an archaic system kept in place by Parties with a strong vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
Populus is 33/33 or Lab by one 34/33 depending whether you take the numbers including the squeeze question as the DK in this poll are breaking Tory. Also has Tory ahead on party most identified with and who you would vote for if you had to. Straws for my blue friends :-)
What i don't understand is how a consistent and clear trend to the Tories in the phone polls since Jan/Feb would level out and all return to Labour in the last 36 hours.
Makes no sense to me at all.
Well, maybe they always were Labour supporters to begin with:
"We find that reported swings in public opinion polls are generally not due to actual shifts in vote intention, but rather are the result of temporary periods of relatively low response rates by supporters of the reportedly slumping candidate. After correcting for this bias, we show there were nearly constant levels of support for the candidates during what appeared, based on traditional polling, to be the most volatile stretches of the campaign..."
That could also possibly explain why the online polls have not shown much recent movement towards Labour whereas the telephone polls have. The internet surveys as a self-selecting sample never had a problem with response...
Nonetheless, I think Conservatives will be more likely to turn out and that recent Ashcroft poll seems to be indicating that UKIP supporters are switching to the Conservatives - if they do so in larger numbers in the marginals, the Conservatives will be well placed to retain their majority of seats.
Nothing has changed in the last 36 hours or even two four weeks.
The only small difference that has been was recorded in the beginning of the campaign when the Great British public found out that Ed Miliband did not eat babies after all. There was a one-off jump and it has remained like that.
I think you may be misreading this.
I think people that were flirting with the Greens and such like have suddenly realised that the Tories were winning and are swinging behind Ed and trying to shore up Labour.
The Conservatives are going to be about as happy as a penguin in a microwave looking at the latest polls, either the polls or the betting markets are wrong, we will see later.
Labour judging by here in Amber Valley yesterday put a huge effort in, where they found all the numbers on a working day I can only guess. Looking at the polls it may have paid off, in the end Cameron and co have hugely brassed off Public Sector workers, capitalised on fully by the Unions. That is where it may end up won and lost. Public Sector workers are motivated en masse to go out and vote Labour.
Not sure most will gain as much as they think they will the nation still spends far too much.
In homage to Avery, here's a yellow box with the latest forecasts from various academics/pundits, and a slection of PB regulars. Apologies for any mistakes (in a couple of cases I've had to guess the PC/Respect figures):
The WHO report today came out with some very concerning numbers about levels of obesity in the UK. Apparently, 64% of women and 75% of men will be overweight by 2030. That's a sad state to be in as a country. We really need to do a much better job of teaching children how to manage nutrition and fitness when they're at school.
The Netherlands are the only major European going the other way. Mostly down to 25% of journeys by cycling and less of a fast food culture. I was told by an Indonesian Dutch doctor at a conference that cycling lessons are part of the citizenship programme. Can't be Dutch if you cannot ride a bike!
Not the sex and drugs then?
Or even that the Dutch tend to be very tall and the BMI norms have not been adjusted.
I am not sure how the Cameroons will spin a result like that, economic fundamentals means they should be 2/3 points ahead. Unfortunately I fear the neocons like Osborne, Gove etc. will stay on.
Ed winning would certainly smash the Blairite consensus, for that be grateful.
If the Tories poll 36% (less than 1% down on 2010) after five years of austerity, that's a pretty good effort.
Especially if UKIP poll over 10%, which looks likely.
UKIP look as though they will cost the Tories this GE. Democracy at work, whether anybody likes it or not.
To be honest, Fenster, I'm not sure how democratic a FPTP system can be.
It looks increasingly like an archaic system kept in place by Parties with a strong vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
That's a fair point. The Lid Dems getting just 5% fewer votes than Labour at GE2010 yet 215 fewer seats was particularly cruel.
I wonder if the attempted character assassination of Ed Miliband has backfired; generated sympathy with the public and, some ways, might have benefited Labour.
I do wonder whether the Tories and the press ended up setting such low expectations for Ed Miliband that a large proportion of the electorate ended up being pleasantly surprised when he managed to come across as a functioning human being.
Nothing has changed in the last 36 hours or even two four weeks.
The only small difference that has been was recorded in the beginning of the campaign when the Great British public found out that Ed Miliband did not eat babies after all. There was a one-off jump and it has remained like that.
I think you may be misreading this.
I think people that were flirting with the Greens and such like have suddenly realised that the Tories were winning and are swinging behind Ed and trying to shore up Labour.
Do we have Red LD's swinging back as well? Genuine question.
Martin Boon @martinboon 2m2 minutes ago Turnout does look like it might return to 1990's levels. Upping my prediction to 72-74%. @ElectoralCommUK 10/10 in @guardian_clark poll 74%
Comments
Ed winning would certainly smash the Blairite consensus, for that be grateful.
May 2010: 65%
May 2015: 86%
The dark days maybe coming to an end !
China's Ma Long and Fang Bo play 'point of the century'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/table-tennis/32623284
Take your pick.
It was like punters thought no way do the voters really like Brown.
Interestingly most respondents in the poll still expect the Conservatives to win.
Something was afoot by Friday night.
Still. These are polls. The real action is going on out there right now.
I'm not sure I understand the British electorate anymore. The decisions they're making make absolutely no sense to me.
This is why so many will still vote Labour in Rotherham. If you see the role of government as being to make other people worse off, so as to equalise them with yourself, why would you care about Labour turning a blind eye to paedophile rape gangs? What's that got to do with anything? The main thing is they'll bash the south-east.
One of my friends is a Tory voter and he hates Miliband but even he said the piss taking of him is just too much
Makes no sense to me at all.
I don't know. That could be something else altogether.
The Tories really should have campaigned on why it made sense to vote for them. Negative campaigning can only get you so far, I would have thought.
Still, we'll find out soon enough.
If Labour do get in it will be interesting to see how they manage the expectations they have built up because I'm quite certain that they will end up taxing and cutting far far more than they have said they will. So a lot of people who thought that Labour would help them or at least not cost them will be disappointed.
Tory hopes seemes contingent on getting a boost from the economy (if they have, it hasn't been by enough), Ed being crap (he's not been, for the most part) and Labour voters not turning out (which the above says they are).
Chances of Tory government edging down to 1.5% now on my made up metric.
Especially if UKIP poll over 10%, which looks likely.
UKIP look as though they will cost the Tories this GE. Democracy at work, whether anybody likes it or not.
'Tory election planners were expecting things to be better than this by now. Some suggested last summer would be the "crossover" point, when the Tories clearly overtook Labour. Then the autumn was the moment, but It didn't come then either. And now, after two months of attacks on Mr Miliband and rehearsal of the key Tory election themes, the party is still waiting.
"We're stuck," is how one minister puts it. "Nothing we've done yet has moved anyone," says an MP. There's no panic or even much unhappiness to those observations. On the whole, Tories still have a Micawberish faith that Something Will Turn Up, that as election day approaches, voters will simply wake up to a binary Cameron-Miliband choice and vote Tory in droves.'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/11444236/Are-the-Conservatives-losing-their-nerve.html
The only small difference that has been was recorded in the beginning of the campaign when the Great British public found out that Ed Miliband did not eat babies after all. There was a one-off jump and it has remained like that.
Mostly SNP constituency bets, a few Lab seats here and there plus £50 covering Lab 0-20 seats in Scotland.
It makes no sense if you think pollsters know are savvy in touch experts who really know what they are doing.
If you think they are very, very, human, and that's being very kind, it makes all the sense in the world
Punters waiting for developments? Personally I'd have expected this morning's polls to have shifted the price more, but if it was all too predictable nobody would bet at all.
I agree - and if it goes badly tonight for them CCHQ (and News UK) need to think reflect on how they spurned an open goal on economic competency (rightly or wrongly) to instead poke fun at Miliband for looking funny and not adhering to primogeniture - minor-public-school bully behaviour.
27/113 unprompted kippers in dag and rainham so far
The evidence did not lie.
The blue team tends to think that PB somehow reflects the voting public, and stokes their own beliefs.
Many of the online polls (eg Populus) always heavily downweighted the Greens, and so this could explain why they aren't picking up the same late swing.
Anyway - about twelve hours until Nuneaton is expected to declare, and we will see how things look then.
It would be funny if it was the Mail and the Sun wot won it - for Ed!
It really is interesting to behold.
The subsample numbers are right at the top of the range on ICM and Comres. It would be helpful to see Ipsos.
Quite where these people are concentrated remains to be seen. I'd guess that a lot are in big cities.
My instinct is "I don't know what's going to happen" other than more LDs will hang on than polls suggest, and SNP won't be quite as successful as the Scottish swing shows.
Also have a slight fancy that UKIP will win four seats.
On a subjective note my feeling from knocking on a large number of doors over the past 6 months was that there were more genuine "undecideds2 (ie not those who just dont want to tell you there not going to vote for you) than I have come across previously. I even had a chap last night who said he was going to sit down after dinner to read both the labour & tory manifestos to come to a final decision.
We need to wait another 15 or so hours to find out if all this is right
It looks increasingly like an archaic system kept in place by Parties with a strong vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
Also has Tory ahead on party most identified with and who you would vote for if you had to.
Straws for my blue friends :-)
"We find that reported swings in public opinion polls are generally not due to actual shifts in vote intention, but rather are the result of temporary periods of relatively low response rates by supporters of the reportedly slumping candidate. After correcting for this bias, we show there were nearly constant levels of support for the candidates during what appeared, based on traditional polling, to be the most volatile stretches of the campaign..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/08/20/the-mythical-swing-voter/
That could also possibly explain why the online polls have not shown much recent movement towards Labour whereas the telephone polls have. The internet surveys as a self-selecting sample never had a problem with response...
Nonetheless, I think Conservatives will be more likely to turn out and that recent Ashcroft poll seems to be indicating that UKIP supporters are switching to the Conservatives - if they do so in larger numbers in the marginals, the Conservatives will be well placed to retain their majority of seats.
I think people that were flirting with the Greens and such like have suddenly realised that the Tories were winning and are swinging behind Ed and trying to shore up Labour.
Labour judging by here in Amber Valley yesterday put a huge effort in, where they found all the numbers on a working day I can only guess. Looking at the polls it may have paid off, in the end Cameron and co have hugely brassed off Public Sector workers, capitalised on fully by the Unions. That is where it may end up won and lost. Public Sector workers are motivated en masse to go out and vote Labour.
Not sure most will gain as much as they think they will the nation still spends far too much.
Cam 1.81
ED 2.24
By 'piquant', I assume you mean 'innacurate'
I have bought labour majority at 100-1
Or even that the Dutch tend to be very tall and the BMI norms have not been adjusted.
Someone always knows, someone always tells
Turnout does look like it might return to 1990's levels. Upping my prediction to 72-74%. @ElectoralCommUK 10/10 in @guardian_clark poll 74%