News - Accountability
High Class Discontent: Economic Insecurity and UKIP Support
By Steve Fenton (University of Bristol) and Robin Mann (WISERD, Bangor University) Academic analysis and media commentary have shifted the emphasis from Tory voter defectors towards working class voters, and potential Labour supporters, in explaining UKIP support. This was a good corrective to earlier emphases….
Voter Trends in 2014 and lessons for the 2015 General Election
By Steven Ayres, Researcher, House of Commons Library Since 1964, the British Election Study (BES) has been surveying voters at each General Election in an attempt to establish who votes for who and why. The study has evolved over time, yet the central focus on…
Trading places? Left-right placement in Scotland. By Professor Phil Cowley
‘But what about the SNP?’ That’s what I’ve been asked most, after writing a blog on the way the public see the ideological positions of the parties. With ‘normal’ opinion polls it’s difficult to do sensible inter-country comparisons– because the number of respondents outside of…
BES news round up
This year, academic colleagues from around the country have been using British Election Study data to inform public opinion – and in the process have been hitting the news headlines. Professors Jane Green, Geoff Evans, Ed Fieldhouse and Cees Van Der Eijk of the BES…
Left, right and centre. By Professor Phil Cowley
A ComRes poll reported in this weekend’s Independent on Sunday got considerable coverage – as a result of discovering that voters saw UKIP as to the left of the Conservatives. This morning, however, a YouGov poll for the Times (£) finds people placing UKIP to…
An electoral system fit for purpose?
The British Election Study is lucky enough to have a board of eminent experts in the world of politics who advise on how our data can reach a broad range of users outside academia. The group, whose members span the three main British political parties…
All Roads lead to UKIP? By Geoff Evans and Jon Mellon (University...
Do the Conservatives or Labour need to worry most about UKIP in 2015? Certainly, Labour constituencies see fairly high levels of UKIP support (notably at the recent Heywood & Middleton by-election), suggesting there is credence to the argument that Labour is losing its disaffected traditional…
British Election Study on the Westminster Hour
Listen to Professor Jane Green and Dr Steve Fisher being interviewed for the Westminster Hour, BBC Radio Four, on 7 December, ahead of our British Election study event in Westminster on 9 December. Both will be presenting their research findings using BES data, along with…
What the BES suggests about constituency variation in party performance, by Stephen...
Where parties win votes at the next general election will matter as well as how many they win. Recent opinion polls suggest that since 2010 the Conservatives have suffered a small set back and Labour have made a correspondingly modest recovery. Much more dramatic has…
British Election Study Analysis on BBC Vote 2014 with David Dimbleby
With voting in both the Local and European Elections taking place on Thursday 22nd May, Professor Jane Green of the British Election Study team provided up to date analysis of the elections for BBC Breakfast and the Vote 2014 election special program (BBC1 & BBC2)…