News
The Benefits of Random Probability Sampling: The 2015 BES Face-to-Face
This post reveals the BES 2015 reported vote figures for the face-to-face survey and discusses them in the context of representativeness achieved via random probability sampling and efforts to interview hard-to-reach respondents. The face-to-face survey is an address-based random probability sample of eligible voters living in 600 wards…
Why the polls got it wrong and the British Election Study face-to-face...
The release of the British Election Study post-election face-to-face survey allows us to revisit the question of why the polls went wrong before the 2015 General Election. Based on our internet panel, we previously examined five possible explanations for why the polls went wrong and…
British Election Study 2015 Face-to-face survey v1.0: Release note
This note accompanies the release of the British Election Study face to face survey (version 1.0). Dataset and documentation The dataset and additional documentation are available to download here. Citation Fieldhouse, E., J. Green., G. Evans., H. Schmitt, C. van der Eijk, J. Mellon and…
PhD study with the British Election Study
Are you an undergraduate or Masters student interested in studying for a PhD in electoral politics? If so then you need to come along to an information session at The University of Manchester on October 28 to learn more about all the exciting topics you…
Learning the right lessons from Labour’s 2015 defeat
Published first by the IPPR in Juncture, and reported by Ross Hawkins on BBC online. Jane Green and Chris Prosser pick apart the factors that underpinned Labour’s disappointing election performance, including the ability of the Conservative and Labour parties to win votes from other parties…
Release! Updated 2015 General Election Results File
Today we are releasing an updated version of our 2015 General Election results file (version 2.0). The file comprises the 2015 election results for each constituency (winning party, vote share, number of votes, turnout, majority and changes in vote share since 2010), the 2010 results (winning party,…
Insights into #GE2015: Presentation by Professor Ed Fieldhouse
This week BES Co-Director Professor Ed Fieldhouse spoke to an ESRC sponsored ‘Chalk and Talk’ event at the Social Market Foundation, London, in which he explored the decline of our two party system. Electoral theory expects proportional systems to enhance smaller party voting and majoritarian electoral…
BLOG UPDATE: is Labour really too left-wing to win an election?
Few could have anticipated the surge in support for Jeremy Corbyn, who after getting on to the Labour leadership ballot by the skin of his teeth has become remarkably popular among his party’s grassroots . Most Labour people have something to say on the Corbyn…
Why did the polls go wrong? By Jon Mellon and Chris Prosser
The post-election wave of the British Election Study (BES) Internet panel allows us to take a closer look at possible causes of the polling miss during the recent General Election. We previously identified five possible explanations: 1) “don’t knows” shifting, 2) a late swing among…
Post-Election Wave of the BES Internet Panel Released
The British Election Study is pleased to announce the release of the sixth wave of the Internet Panel, conducted immediately after the British General Election. In total 30,027 respondents took wave 6 of the British Election Study. 27,926 of these also took wave 5, an…