No, Guardian, if pollsters didn’t speak to Tory voters it supports the ‘shy Tories’ theory
Researchers have been trying to work out why the polls got their general election predictions so badly wrong since May, and now we know the answer: ‘Shy Tories’.
The polls failed to reflect the fact that some people would not admit their voting intention because they were Tories and knew that their choice would make them unpopular if it were known. So they kept their mouths shut.
The Guardian report on the subject – part-quoted here – is wrong. It says the problem was pollsters’ failure to reach the right people and dismisses the reticence of ‘shy Tories’.
But the story goes on to support the ‘shy Tories’ theory by stating that Tory voters were “busy with other things” when the pollsters came knocking.
If you didn’t want someone to know you were voting for the Nasty Party, wouldn’t you find something else to do when they came around?
The paper’s politics index page on the World Wide Web has it right, though: “Election polling errors blamed on failure to speak to Tory voters.”
Shy Tories.
Perhaps the paper is trying to hide the fact that the pollsters will never, ever, get around this issue. They can’t force people to reveal their intentions. Nor can they simply build in an error margin to accommodate it, because of the chance that they’ll be significantly mistaken.
The only solution is to admit that many supporters of the Conservative Party are ashamed to admit the fact and include a line to that effect on every poll result, it seems to This Writer.
That will be embarrassing for the Conservative Party itself, of course.
But then, every cloud has a silver lining.
A new report traces the roots of the pollsters’ failure to predict the Conservative majority in last year’s election to their lack of adequate contact with Tory supporters.
Earlier speculation about what went wrong has focused on poorly designed questionnaires, a late swing to the Conservatives, a failure of “lazy Labour” supporters to turn out, or reticence on the part of “shy Tories” to reveal their leanings.
But, ahead of Prof Patrick Sturgis’s presentation of the first findings of his postmortem for the British Polling Council next week, analysis by the leading psephologist Prof John Curtice blows these theories out of the water and suggests the problem was pollsters’ failure to reach the right people.
Source: Election polling errors blamed on failure to speak to Tory voters | Politics | The Guardian
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Shy! Don’t you mean c**ts! Stupid idiots who believe they are clever political minded rather than easily fooled. Sorry for the language friends.
Don’t be sorry for the language, just leave the asterisks out nest time!
I put those asterisks in. Swearing is not allowed here.
I would be ashamed to admit I was voting Tory too, if doing so showed I had scant disregard for my fellow man and more interested in getting and keeping wealth!
I agree however, the trouble is that people who have scant regard for their fellow me know no shame.
Polling is a nuisance at least and a threat at worst. Polling should be banned 4 weeks before an election and only Party Political Broadcasts allowed in that period. This will allow(?) voters to vote if they so wish based upon political rhetoric and not pollsters “interpretation” of the situation. Leading a horse by its nose springs to mind.
When canvassing for the Labour party I have met people on their doorstep who have responded, ‘What’s it got to do with you f… off! I always put them down as tories. Which is unfair really and probably skews the result.
Interesting, too, that membership of the Nasty Party is declining quite quickly. Many people I know who have “no interest in politics” vote tory.
dont participate in the polls if your left wing. it increases the election costs for tories as they have to leaflet and visit people in all the areas they target for seats.
polls if unsuccessful in getting a sample are worthless. more importantly this creates uncertainty and elections are less predictable. Tories will hate this as the polls they pay for will be producing less information for them to target leafletting and resources.
Perhaps there are too many of us on the left ready to rip the throats out any one who confesses to having even the slightest ring wing leanings – best just to sat you have no interest.
I have always considered that voting Tory as being similar to masturbating, every one does it but no one admits to doing it.
Of course that lebels them “rankers” which I am convinced most of them are.
That’s not true. I, for one, have never voted Tory.