Under Giulia's leadership, the aim is to enhance and broaden the reach of the existing Behavioural Science capabilities within Public Affairs in the UK.
Today's Daily Record carries polling results from six marginal seats in Scotland, and compares the results with those that it published in the same six marginal seats last week; both polls were conducted by Scottish Opinion. All very well, except that the first poll interviewed only 744 respondents in total (an average of 124 per constituency), and today's interviewed 911 (average about 152).
Politicians and pundits alike decry that 'this election should be about the issues'. Yet personalities intrude. In the four-sided tetrahedron that drives my model of voting behaviour, 'values' count for most, as roughly 80% of the public have their mind made up before any election is called, and most of them don't change the habits of a lifetime, in the aggregate.
The answers to three questions included on the MORI survey being published in The Times tomorrow reveal a good deal about the public attitudes to the state of the parties, and go some way to explaining the cavernous gap that still exists between the parties (and which, indeed, may even have widened slightly in the last week).
With three polls now in from Scotland, we can take a brief look at the electoral scene north of the border. (Not that you would know there have been any polls in Scotland from reading the London-based newspapers.) As the first post-devolution election, it will be fascinating to see how, if at all, the existence of the Scottish Parliament affects voting patterns, turnout, and the concerns which Scottish voters raise with their candidates.
Daily it seems we are confronted, confounded and sometimes infuriated by these phone(y) polls, fax polls, phooey polls and my collective name for them, 'Voodoo Polls'.
This is the most boring election in this century/decade/since the war/lately/whatever. How many elections is it that I've been hearing that? Nine is it? Every election news editors send some tyro journo out to stir up apathy, and prove once again that this is the most boring election since the year dot.
In Saturday's Guardian Yvonne Roberts report discussed the "gender gap" in voting, arguing that women are not served well by the political system, and quoting research by Harriet Harman and Deborah Mattinson.
The Sunday polls sweepstakes have the three horses at the starting gate, and ... off they go. At the first furlong they are neck and neck, with NOP running on the pages of the Sunday Times at 49% for the favourites, Labour, 32% for the also rans, the Tory Party; ICM in The Observer (handicapped) is nearly level, with 48% for Labour, 32 (again) for the Tories, while MORI is running somewhat stronger for Labour at 51%, with the Tories at 31%. NOP and MORI show the Liberal Democrats lagging at 13% while ICM, as usual, has them up two, at 15%. They were also at 13% in the starting race last week in the first and before this morning only measure of form, MORI in the Times on Wednesday, with fieldwork entirely taken after the Prime Minister fired the starting gun last week.
