Harry Hayfield
Green
Cavalier Gentleman (as in 17th century Cavalier)
Posts: 2,812 
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Post by Harry Hayfield on Oct 23, 2023 18:53:50 GMT
I have been going through the YouTube archive of BBC election news reports (mainly to see what colours they used for parties that no longer exist) and I was struck by something. Although there are no campaign reports from the 1979 and 1983 election, the 1987 campaign had polling information as part of the main nighttime news bulletin, as did the 1992, 1997 and 2001 elections, however since 2005 I have not been able to find anything suggesting that the BBC carries polling information.
Am I correct in this assumption and if so, then may I ask how people like me who follow polls are supposed to keep track when it takes Wikipedia at least 48 hours to catch up?
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Post by LDCaerdydd on Oct 23, 2023 20:06:59 GMT
The only times when I can recall the BBC mentioning an opinion poll is when the poll in itself is news - think when the Conservatives started to properly tank last year and when the BBC Commission a poll themselves (there have been a few Welsh polls often in the run up to St David’s Day).
What you need to remember however is that there a dozen or so polling companies each with individual clients. The Times (as a random example) will only run with their own polls and will very occasionally make a passing reference to a poll conducted on behalf of The Telegraph or Guardian for example.
If the BBC (or ITV) did cover polls in their 9/10pm news bulletins back in the day that was because there were far fewer of them.
If someone really did want to keep track of every poll, then Wikipedia or a specialist political site would do that (and I’m including accounts like Britain Elects on Twitter here and dare I say it this place) but the average man/woman in the street isn’t going to be interested in ten different opinion polls over seven days.
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