StatCounter

Monday 18 February 2008

What has Ken done this time?

I see at Political Betting that the British Polling Council is establishing a formal panel to look at the Ipsos-MORI December 18 poll that Ken Livingstone stated showed "that two thirds of Londoners support proposals to charge cars with the highest greenhouse gas emissions £25 a day to drive in the Central London congestion charge zone and introduce a zero charge for the lowest emitting vehicles." You can see the press release here...


As Political Betting explain, "In the normal course of events within two days the pollster, Ipsos-MORI, would have published full data from the survey on its website as part of the transparency arrangements that all members of the British Polling Council adhere to. That hasn’t happened and now, nearly two months later with the detailed data still being unavailable my understanding is that the British Polling Council is establishing a formal panel to look at the situation. This is the first time that this process has ever been applied since the Council was established in 2004."


I wonder why the detailed data was not been produced within a couple of days of the poll headline figures being announced. Could it be an issue at Ipsos-MORI or could there be another explanation.


As Political Betting remind us, "A good example of why seeing the full data matters came during Labour’s Deputy Leadership election. A YouGov survey found that 15% of voters said they would be “more likely” to support Labour if Harriet Harman was Gordon’s deputy leader and her campaign made great play of this finding. The poll had in fact been funded by the Harman campaign and when the full data became available a very different picture emerged - for an equal proportion, 15% - said they would be LESS LIKELY to vote Labour with these two in the jobs. No wonder the last part was suppressed. "




UPDATE:

Oddly it appears that Phil Taylor, the Ealing councillor not the darts player, has got hold of the whole report and has some details on his blog. It all gets more interesting by the minute...

No comments: