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.
In this article I argue that public opinion is important, real, and in the run up to the Maastricht Treaty was mismanaged to the point of neglect. This was also true in relation to the European movement towards the ICG, following after the Maastricht Treaty ratification process.
Most observers would agree that Tony Blair has enjoyed a successful first year in office. With the exception of a short blip during the summer, his new Government has enjoyed an extended honeymoon period, and – with the celebrations now over - Labour continues to hold a powerful lead over the Conservatives.
The power of public opinion was vividly demonstrated recently in Britain by an event which grabbed the attention of the entire world. Princess Diana, an icon of our time with probably the highest awareness level of anyone in the world, was killed in a car crash and at the age of 36, struck down in the prime of life. Her life was measured in the thousands of extra copies of magazines and newspapers in every language published, when she was the cover picture. Her death became a world-wide public event, with millions who had never met her feeling a personal bereavement.
The Conservatives are up all average three points, to 32 per cent, and Labour is down by four,to 49 per cent, since the first week of the campaign. There have been seven polls published since my report last week and a clear pattern is emerging, led by the MORI poll in The Times last Thursday which so galvanised the Prime Minister.
The BBC censor political poll findings. They say they don't, but their journalists and editors complain privately they do, and the evidence is there, from the Today programme to What the Papers Say to the news broadcasts. They've thrown the baby out with the bath water, and ignore the only systematic and objective measure of British public opinion, and replace it with vox pops, phone-in ('voodoo') polls, interviews with party spokesmen and their own spin.
The election is approaching, and we are frequently being asked a similar series of questions — or, occasionally, discovering that some have an alarming misunderstanding about what we do. So, with apologies to those of our readers to whom this is already obvious, let us begin at the beginning.
