The latest Gallup poll has Labour up two points since last month, the Conservatives down one, yet to judge from the Daily Telegraph's front page headline Friday (9.6.00) morning, its poll carries awful news for the government: "LABOUR'S LEAD OVER TORIES IS HALVED". What does that convey, knowing that Gallup polls for the Telegraph monthly and is published within a couple of days of the end of fieldwork? Surely that the government has suffered a catastrophic loss of support in the last month, and that this was the position as measured a couple of days ago. In fact, such an impression would be entirely untrue.
Pulse Check delivers key insights from Ipsos' Political Monitor, Political Pulse, and Public Services data, along with reactive polling, to help you navigate the evolving political landscape.
Brian Souter's privately funded "referendum" in Scotland on the repeal of Section 28/2A of the Local Government Act reached its conclusion this week in an inevitable flurry of recrimination about its significance, if any. The Scottish Executive, in dismissing it, described it as a "flawed opinion poll". This is entirely a misuse of the term.
Women are significantly more likely to die of a stroke than men, yet they are also less aware (spontaneously) than men of potential risk factors, according to MORI poll results released today by The Stroke Association. The figures, released to coincide with a major discussion and vote by the National Federation of Women's Institutes on the issue of stroke care, show that women are considerably less likely than men to recognise that eating healthily, and lowering their alcohol consumption, can help to reduce the risk of stroke. 10,000 women will be lending their voice to the issue of stroke care at the National Federation of Women's Institutes Triennial General Meeting at Wembley on the 7th June.
People are putting their health on the line through ignorance of diabetes according to a hard-hitting report into the reality and misconceptions of the condition in the UK today.
A survey of disabled motorists in the UK shows that two thirds (60%) never use any form of public transport. Conducted for specialist insurers, Privilege, the survey reveals disabled motorists have to resort to using their own cars because of the problems they experience with access at shops and places of work.
Thirty years ago this week, Parliament was dissolved, and the last Labour government to have a working majority went to the country to appeal for a renewal of its mandate to govern. There is no consensus of opinion on why Harold Wilson lost that election and Edward Heath won, but one widely-held belief is that the final critical swing in the last few days may have been caused by England's defeat by West Germany in the quarter-finals of the World Cup. A government was ejected from office because England lost a football match.
