All posts by djmoore

ANALYSIS OF THE POLLS ENDING 3RD MAY TO 9TH MAY IN THE 2017 UK GENERAL ELECTION

The overall average (and seat totals) for the parties in the polls ending between May 3rd and 9th in the UK General Election were as follows :

CONSERVATIVES 48% 409 seats
LABOUR 29% 167 seats
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS 9% 6 seats
UNITED KINGDOM INDEPENDENCE PARTY 6%
SCOTTISH NATIONALIST PARTY 4% 49 seats
PLAID CYMRU 1% 1 seat
GREENS 2%

3rd to 9th May Britain

The Conservatives are up 10 points since 2015 and would gain 79 seats – however in the first polls after the election was called they were on a similar figure but were gaining 125 seats. The difference this time is that Labour have closed the gap somewhat from 23 points to 19 points. They would gain particularly amongst older voters, working-class voters and voters in Wales and Scotland (though their gains in terms of seats in the latter country would be modest). By contrast, the vote amongst younger voters has remained static.

Labour have held onto their younger vote – in fact they increase it, but lose amongst older voters. The Tories are ahead of them in every region bar the North – but a rise in their vote in Wales suggests they could take 15 of the 40 seats, which is an improvement on the near-complete wipeout suggested by previous polls.

The Liberal Democrats fare better amongst middle-class voters, and see a sizeable increase in London – but less elsewhere. 5 out of every 6 Liberal Democrats are Remain voters, due partly to a small influx of Remain voters from other parties, but more because of an exodus of 2015 Liberal Democrat voters who voted LEAVE – it seems only 2 out of every 5 intend to stick with the LibDems, and a similar number intend to vote for the Tories.

As many 2015 UKIP voters now say they are going to vote Conservative as say the will remain with UKIP. They do best amongst working-class voters. The vast majority of UKIPers are Leave voters.

The SNP would still retain a huge majority of the seats in Scotland, but the Tories would secure a significant foothold of 10 seats.

The Conservatives been very successful in retaining their 2015 voters, with 9 out of 10 saying there are sticking with them. In addition nearly half of 2015 UKIP voters and nearly a quarter of 2015 Liberal Democrat voters (and 1 in ten 2015 Labour voters) are now intending to vote for the Conservatives. Of Particular interest is that, despite the fact that the Conservatives are implementing Brexit, they are managing to hang on to more than 5 out of 6 of their 2015 voters who voted REMAIN in 2016 (source : ICM polls). This compares to Labour only currently retaining 2 out of 3 of their LEAVE voters, and the Liberal Democrats only retaining 1 out of 3 of their Leave Voters.

In fact the Liberal Democrat support base seems to be in considerable flux – only half of those currently intending to vote LibDem voted for the party in 2015 (one in 6 are former Tory voters, 1 in 4 are former Labour voters) – on the other side 2 out of every 5 of their 2015 voters are now voting for either the Conservatives or Labour (splitting 3:2 in favour of the former).

One of the more surprising findings in ICM polls is that the Conservatives are outpolling Labour by 46% to 35% in Labour marginal seats. However a similar analysis by YouGov (which returned a 9 point lead for the Tories in Labour marginals on National Voting intentions) found that when respondents were asked about their constituency voting intention, the Conservative lead was cut to 2 points.

You can read the report here :
UK May 3 to May 9

ANALYSIS OF POLLS ENDING 28TH APRIL TO 2ND MAY IN THE UK GENERAL ELECTION

The overall average (and seat totals) for the parties in the polls ending between April 22nd and 27th in the UK General Election were as follows :

CONSERVATIVES 46% 397 seats
LABOUR 30% 172 seats
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS 9% 8 seats
UNITED KINGDOM INDEPENDENCE PARTY 7%
SCOTTISH NATIONALIST PARTY 4% 55 seats
PLAID CYMRU 1%
GREENS 2%

28th Apr to 2nd May Britain

The Conservatives are up 8 points since 2015 and would gain 67 seats. They would gains particularly amongst older voters, working-class voters and those voters in Wales. By contrast, the vote amongst younger voters has remained static.

Labour have held onto their younger vote – in fact they increase it, but lose amongst older voters. The Tories are ahead of them in every region bar the North.

The Liberal Democrats fare better amongst middle-class voters, and see a sizeable increase in London – but less elsewhere. 5 out of every 6 Liberal Democrats are Remain voters.

As many 2015 UKIP voters now say they are going to vote Conservative as say the will remain with UKIP. They do best amongst working-class voters. 5 out of every 6 UKIPers are Leave voters.

The SNP hold fairly firm, losing just 1 seat.

You can read the report here : UK Apr 28 to May 2

ANALYSIS OF POLLS ENDING APRIL 22ND TO 27TH IN THE UK GENERAL ELECTION

The overall average (and seat totals) for the parties in the polls ending between April 22nd and 27th in the UK General Election were as follows :

CONSERVATIVES 45% 402 seats
LABOUR 29% 162 seats
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS 10% 12 seats
UNITED KINGDOM INDEPENDENCE PARTY 8%
SCOTTISH NATIONALIST PARTY 4% 54 seats
PLAID CYMRU 1% 1 seat
GREENS 3% 1 seat

test
The Conservatives are up 7 points since 2015 (but down 3% since the first poll analysis), and would gain 84 seats. They would gains particularly amongst older voters, working-class voters and those voters in Wales. By contrast, the vote amongst younger voters has remained static.

Labour have held onto their younger vote – in fact they increase it, but lose amongst older voters. The Tories are ahead of them in every region bar the North.

The Liberal Democrats fare better amongst middle-class voters, and see a sizeable increase in London – but less elsewhere. 5 out of every 6 Liberal Democrats are Remain voters.

As many 2015 UKIP voters now say they are going to vote Conservative as say the will remain with UKIP. They do best amongst working-class voters. 5 out of every 6 UKIPers are Leave voters.

The SNP hold fairly firm – they lose 1 seat in Glasgow to the Liberal Democrats, and 2 in Southern Scotland to the Tories. They however gain 1 from Labour.

You can read the report here : UK Apr 22 to Apr 27

Analysis of the Polls Ending 18th-21st April in the UK Election

The overall average (and seat totals) for the parties in the first five polls conducted in the UK General Election were as follows :

CONSERVATIVES 48% 455 seats
LABOUR 25% 115 seats
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS 11% 11 seats
UNITED KINGDOM INDEPENDENCE PARTY 7%
SCOTTISH NATIONALIST PARTY 4% 51 seats
PLAID CYMRU 1%

The Conservatives are up 10 points since 2015, and would gain 125 seats. They would gains particularly amongst older voters, working-class voters and those voters in Wales. By contrast, the vote amongst younger voters has remained static.

Labour have held onto their younger vote, but lose amongst middle-aged and particularly older voters. Their vote has fallen badly in Wales, and has fallen further in Scotland. The Tories are ahead of them in every region – only in London and the North do they come close.

The Liberal Democrats fare better amongst middle-class voters, and see a sizeable increase in London – but less elsewhere.

As many 2015 UKIP voters now say they are going to vote Conservative as say the will remain with UKIP. They do best amongst working-class voters.

You can read the report here : UK Apr 18 to Apr 21 NEW

Analysis of the Millward Brown February 2017 Poll

The Tallyriffic Predictor’s analysis of the Millward Brown poll on a constituency-by-constituency basis returns the following results :

OTHERS16%11

PARTY VOTE SEATS
FIANNA FAIL 33% 60
FINE GAEL 25% 47
SINN FEIN 20% 35
LABOUR 6% 4
Others 16% 11

It might seem odd that Labour only win 3 seats off 6%, but this result is explained by the fact that of the 7 seats Labour won in February 2016, 5 were won on the last count. Of these 5, 4 were won by a victory margin of less than 2000 votes and 3 with a margin of less than 1000 votes.

MBfeb19th2017

As can be seen, Fine Gael gain 4 seats but lose 6 – 4 of those projected losses being in Leinster.

Fianna Fáil gain across all regions of the country – although their improvement is somewhat more muted in Leinster. Fine Gael show the largest drop in Leinster – where they are (on these figures) at risk of losing seats in Carlow-Kilkenny, Kildare North, Louth, Offaly, Wexford and Wicklow. By contrast, their vote remains virtually static in Connaught-Ulster. Sinn Fein see a very strong performance in Leinster.

Accounting for “luck” – by equalising the number of final seat wins and runner-up slots – the seat tallies would look like this :

OTHERS16%10

PARTY VOTE SEATS
FIANNA FAIL 33% 59
FINE GAEL 25% 47
SINN FEIN 20% 36
LABOUR 6% 5
Others 16% 10

You can read the entire report here .Millward Brown February 2017 Poll

Analysis of the February 2017 Behaviours and Attitude Poll

The Tallyriffic Predictor’s analysis of the RED C poll on a constituency-by-constituency basis returns the following results :

PARTY VOTE SEATS
FIANNA FAIL 32% 62
FINE GAEL 21% 37
LABOUR 6% 3
SINN FEIN 19% 33
OTHERS 22% 22

It might seem odd that Labour only win 3 seats off 6%, but this result is explained by the fact that of the 7 seats Labour won in February 2016, 5 were won on the last count. Of these 5, 4 were won by a victory margin of less than 2000 votes and 3 with a margin of less than 1000 votes.
Accounting for “luck” – by equalising the number of final seat wins and runner-up slots – the seat tallies would look like this.

PARTY VOTE SEATS
FIANNA FAIL 32% 57
FINE GAEL 21% 37
LABOUR 6% 2
SINN FEIN 19% 33
OTHERS 22% 25

Fianna Fáil gain across all regions of the country – although their improvement is somewhat more muted in Leinster. Fine Gael show the largest drop in Leinster – where they are (on these figures) at risk of losing seats in Carlow-Kilkenny, Kildare North, Louth, Offaly, Wexford and Wicklow. By contrast, their vote remains virtually static in Connaught-Ulster. Sinn Fein see a very strong performance in Leinster.

You can read the entire report here :Analysis B&A ST February 2017

Analysis of RED C’s January 2017 poll

The Tallyriffic Predictor’s analysis of the RED C poll on a constituency-by-constituency basis returns the following results :

PARTY VOTE SEATS
FIANNA FAIL 27% 54
FINE GAEL 24% 40
LABOUR 5% 3
SINN FEIN 14% 23
OTHERS 30% 37

As can be seen, Fianna Fáil are only 3% ahead of Fine Gael, yet win 14 more seats. This is due to the fact that Fianna Fáil were “luckier” on the last count – they took 11 of the final seats, but only 6 of the runner-up slots. By contrast, Fine Gael took 15 of the final seats, but 20 runner-up slots. Accounting for “luck” – by equalising the number of final seat wins and runner-up slots – the seat tallies would look like this.

PARTY VOTE SEATS
FIANNA FAIL 27% 51
FINE GAEL 24% 42
LABOUR 5% 2
SINN FEIN 14% 25
OTHERS 30% 37

Fianna Fáil gain across all regions of the country, while Fine Gael show a poor performance in Leinster – where they are at risk of losing seats in Carlow-Kilkenny, Meath East, Louth, Longford-Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow. By contrast, their vote improves slightly in Connaught-Ulster. Sinn Fein see a strong performance in Leinster offset by a poor performance in Connaught-Ulster.

You can read the entire report here :

RED C January 2017

The Carlow-Kildare Constituency

Another interesting historical constiuency was the 4 seat Carlow-Kildare which existed from 1935-1947. It consisted of the whole of Kildare and North Carlow, South-east Carlow going into Wexford, and North-East into Wicklow.

Carlow-Kildare 1935

In each of the 4 elections (1937, 1943, 1944 and 1948) Fianna Fail took 2 seats, and Fine Gael and Labour 1 each – though Thomas Hayden of Labour was only 525 votes off taking the last seat from Francis Humphreys of Fianna Fáil in 1943.

In 1937, three of the TDs were from Kildare with only Francis Humphreys being based in Carlow. However in 1938, Carlow-based Fine Gael based candidate James Hughes narrowly ousted the Athy-based sitting Fine Gael TD Sydney Minch, and held his seat easily in 1943 and 1944. He died suddenly in early 1948 while addressing a meeting in Borris, County Carlow. Therefore there were 2 TDs each from Carlow and Kildare in 1938, and the same pattern persisted in 1943 and 1944.

THE POLL-TOPPERS IN CAVAN IN 2016

Working on Cavan Maps for the 2016 General Election at the moment.

Here’s a sneak preview of the Poll-toppers.

CavanGeneral Elections 2016Cavan-MonaghanPollToppers

The fact that Heather Humphreys was the highest poller in Cootehill and surrounds goes a long way towards highlighting Fine Gael’s failure to manage their vote and keep their two seats.

Niamh Smyth polled strongly in Bailieborough and surrounding areas (most notably in Shercock), and this combined with a good showing in South Monaghan just about managed to get her over the line ahead of Joe O’Reilly of Fine Gael.

Kathryn Reilly topped the poll in Ballyjamesduff and in Cavan town – but failed to make the anticipated breakthrough.

KILDARE 1961 – THE FRANKENSTEIN CONSTITUENCY

As part as my submission to the Constituency Commission, I went back and had a look at the various forms the Kildare Constituency has taken over the years.

Kildare 1961

Certainly the oddest was the 4 seat Kildare constituency created in 1961 which took in parts of South-West Meath and South-East Westmeath. It featured in two General Elections (1961 and 1965) and both times returned two Fianna Fail TDs (including the Meath-based Brendan Crinion both times), one Fine Gael TD and one Labour TD.

There was a by-election in 1964 following the death of Labour Leader William /Norton, which was won by Fianna Fail. His son Patrick Norton won a seat for Labour in 1965, but joined Fianna Fail in 1967, and lost his seat standing as a Fianna Fail candidate in 1969. He afterwards was a Fianna Fail senator.