After Not-So-Super Thursday
25 June 2004
Now the dust has settled after the so-called "Super Thursday" elections, what should we learn from them?

Babes and Sucklings
26 May 2000
Thirty years ago this week, Parliament was dissolved, and the last Labour government to have a working majority went to the country to appeal for a renewal of its mandate to govern. There is no consensus of opinion on why Harold Wilson lost that election and Edward Heath won, but one widely-held belief is that the final critical swing in the last few days may have been caused by England's defeat by West Germany in the quarter-finals of the World Cup. A government was ejected from office because England lost a football match.

Elections and the BBC
7 April 2000
Earlier this week Peter Kellner in his column in the London Evening Standard strongly criticised two aspects of BBC coverage of the London Mayor and other local elections to be held next month. First, he complained that the BBC's political journalists in London, who had commissioned a poll on the election from MORI [BBC London Live poll] had been prevented by Corporation policy from including any questions on voting intention; this is merely the continuation of a policy which we have criticised for a number of years. Secondly, he has pointed out a new restriction, which will lead to all the parties being required to run their election broadcasts before Easter, a full ten days before polling day. This, arises from the introduction of pilot schemes in a number of councils across the country, whereby a few polling stations will be open early, on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday before the normal polling day, so that electors who cannot vote in the usual way will be able to cast thei...

Elections Yet To Come
29 August 2003
At the end of last month, the Electoral Commission published "The Shape of Elections to Come", its strategic evaluation report on the experimental methods of voting used in this year's local elections. An important part of the evaluation which fed into the Commission's report was a programme of public opinion research, conducted by MORI, including both quantitative surveys and qualitative research (focus groups).

General Election 2001 - Election Commentary: Grey Votes
24 May 2001
Older voters play a crucial role in the result of any British General Election. Not only are there a good many of them, but they are more likely to vote than younger voters — becoming of increasing significance as turnouts fall. Furthermore, of course, their election agenda is in many respects distinctive, forcing those who hope for their votes to give them separate consideration.

Letter from Britain 2
8 December 2008
An analysis by Sir Robert Worcester on the results of the 2008 American Presidential Election.

Local/London Mayor/Romsey Elections Explained
5 May 2000
So, no real surprises in Thursday's local elections, though most of the government's worst fears were fulfilled. Ken is Mayor, the Tories are back in business in local government. More surprising, the Liberal Democrats gained their first parliamentary seat under Charles Kennedy's leadership in the Romsey by-election.

London Mayor and Assembly elections
14 April 2000
How well do you think London's voters understand the complexities of the electoral system, with which they will be faced for the first time in the London Mayor and Assembly elections next month?

Swing Low Sweet William
13 October 2000
Because of the "first-past-the-post" electoral system that we use in Britain, it is not sufficient for a party to win votes: it has to concentrate those votes in the right places so that it can win seats. This is one of the problems facing William Hague. At the last election, Conservative votes were distributed around the country far less efficiently than were Labour votes; if there is a uniform swing across the country to the Conservatives at the next election, the Tories will need to win far more votes than Labour to become even the largest party in a hung Parliament, let alone to win an overall majority.

We're Not Bored, Just Thinking
1 May 2005
In every one of these ten general elections I've been in this country, the media's news editors have sent out reporters to find people to quote saying that "this is the most boring election ever".