News - BES Impact
One of the priorities of the 2015 British Election Study team is to maximize the use and reach of BES data and BES research findings. BES data provides in-depth understanding of the way representative democracy functions in British elections. It provides unique insights into British public opinion, participation, attitudes towards politics and explanations of electoral outcomes. The 2015 BES team is maximizing the usefulness and impact of the BES via:
• An extensive programme of events between 2013 and 2017 in England, Scotland and Wales.
• The release of BES findings for dissemination via national media outlets.
• Expert commentary in national and international media.
• Partnership with the Electoral Commission to study individual electoral registration effects, culminating in a joint report.
• A BES data playground to allow any interested user to access and analyse BES data online (coming soon). We expect this tool to be particularly useful to non-academic researchers in government, political parties, campaigns, charities and think tanks, and to journalists. This will also be of special use to undergraduate and graduate students wishing to explore BES data.
• An Advisory Board with significant expertise in election studies and research into electoral behaviour.
Youthquake – a reply to our critics
In the wake of the release of the 2017 BES face-to-face data, and our analysis that showed no evidence of a surge in youth turnout at the 2017 election, some commentators have challenged our findings. The key message of our original article (published on…
The myth of the 2017 youthquake election
By Chris Prosser, Ed Fieldhouse, Jane Green, Jonathan Mellon, and Geoff Evans In the wake of the surprise outcome of the 2017 election people began to look for an explanation for Labour’s unexpectedly good performance. One explanation quickly became prominent: Jeremy Corbyn had mobilised previously…
The Brexit election? The 2017 General Election in ten charts
By Ed Fieldhouse and Chris Prosser Despite Theresa May’s claim that her reason for calling an early election was to get a mandate for the Brexit negotiations, Brexit was conspicuous by its absence during the 2017 General Election campaign as both the Conservatives and Labour…
What the 2015 Polling Miss Can Tell us About the Trump Surprise
By Jon Mellon and Chris Prosser Tuesday night saw an eerily familiar feeling setting in as it became increasingly clear that the conventional wisdom driven by public polling had greatly miscalculated Trump’s chances just as it had with the UK Conservative party in 2015 and the…
Are Leave Voters Mainly UKIP? by Jonathan Mellon and Geoffrey Evans
The leave campaign’s surprise win in the EU referendum has led many people to look for explanations for its success and how it managed to perform so much better than UKIP, the party that pushed hardest for Brexit. At first glance, it may seem obvious…
BES and the EU referendum result on ITV
The British Election Study has served the social science community since 1964, and will continue to provide a public resource for understanding the political upheaval our country is experiencing. On Thursday night, using the British Election Study, we called the result of the EU referendum…
The ITV referendum team
Following the tumultuous events of referendum night, here’s a group photo of the ITV news team, with Manchester’s Professor Jane Green, who followed the twists and turns of the night’s events. Professor Green, who is one of the nation’s leading political scientists and a co-director…
What do the 2016 local elections tell us about what might happen...
On Thursday May 5th elections for local and devolved governments took place across the UK. For the main British political parties, each part of the country told a slightly different story. In Scotland it was a bad night for Labour, who slipped to third place…
When attitudes and behaviour collide: how a referendum can upset the party...
By Ed Fieldhouse and Chris Prosser Imagine the following scenario: a referendum in which the major political parties and establishment are arguing in favour of the status quo, against a growing but enthusiastic minority who argue in favour of breaking away from the union and…
Missing Non-Voters and Misweighted Samples: Understanding the Great British Polling Miss
By Jon Mellon and Chris Prosser On Tuesday the inquiry into why the polls went wrong before 2015 election released its preliminary findings. Their main finding agrees with our own research: unrepresentative samples are to blame for the 2015 polling miss. However, inaccurate polling due…