Weighting the sample can avoid systemic bias but can't do anything to reduce random error, surely? However perfectly weighted the sample, if you only have a handful of randomly picked people, yo… (View Post)

Most can be put in piles and bundled, as straight votes for the party slate. The mixed votes are done afterwards, using a tally sheet, where one person reads out the votes and another marks up the ta… (View Post)

And as I said this morning, none of it necessarily has any permanence or security. A new government could easily decide it doesn’t like the mayoral system and unpick the whole thing again Just as Lab… (View Post)

Yes, I stayed there, just off the West Highland Way, last spring. It’s a pleasant, scenic area to the south of Loch Lomond and looked fairly prosperous to me. Yet within easy driving distance of Glas… (View Post)

That aspect of the graph isn't a surprise, given that the cost pressures local councils have to meet - principally from adult and child social services - rise inexorably, and other sources of fu… (View Post)