Yesterday's question and poll produced a quite surprising result in the sense that it delivered 14,984 reads on this site yesterday, which for a Sunday is quite extraordinary.
Whist the weekday readership here tends to exceed 7,000 a day, at weekends the usual is about half that (partly because I usually post fewer items at the weekend, partly because I do not usually want to spend all day dealing with comments, as I seemed to yesterday). This weekend with a couple of polls that attracted attention total readership was 24,000, or about 17,000 more than I would usually expect.
I have noted some people commenting on yesterday's poll suggesting that it was astonishing that I even posted the question that I did. They thought it politically naive of me to do so. They suggested that it was inept (mainly Labour supporters on Twitter) or inappropriate when the Green Party exists. But I sensed when it was suggested in response to Saturday's poll that it was a live and topical issue. I also sensed that those denying its relevance are the political problem and not its solution. I will post separately on that. The level of interest proved the sceptics wrong, I think.
For now, first of all my thanks to all who voted and who be many who commented for the first time on the site: most contributions were very good.
Second, it seems that this format works as a way to open up discussion. In that case please feel free to suggest further polls. This one was not written by me, and I am open to others proposing questions that they think might be worth asking. I make no promises that I will use them, or when, but I welcome suggestions.
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Hi Richard; polls are a great idea. I very seldom comment on your posts but often want to endorse what you say.
However, you are so diligent in replying to respondents (even the trolls) that I hesitate to take up your time with my musings.
‘YES – NO – DUNNO’ lets me feel as if I’m giving you encouragement (mostly)… but if I disagree, it doesn’t raise your hackles.
Iain Lawson’s blog ‘Yours for Scotland’ & Gareth Wardell’s ‘GrouseBeater’ have a Comments section with a ‘Liked Comment’ button for all subscribers to use if they wish. I rarely get a reply from those authors but really appreciate it when my comment gets a thumbs-up from another reader. A potential time-saver for yourself, Richard?
I tried that and it was trolled
I can look again
Very impressive number of comments on the poll. I do like the “heart” to show approval.
In terms of the parties: Tories (far too right wing), Liebore (right wing), Lib-Dems (right wing), Green (very middle class).
Non-seem to address the issues of concern to most people (poor, working class, middle in all its flavours): the effective provision of core services (health, education, water, sewage, gas & elec, and the efficieny collection of tax from ALL citizens and companies) without which no country can call itself civilised or indeed function effectively.
Apologies for sounding like a broken record.
Anyway, like the new site.
I think we have stopped tinkering fir the time being. The heart went live half an hour or so ago
Agree re the ‘hearts’
My sense is that one needs to differentiate between where the parties are, where their members are, and then where the voting public is. The likes of John Curtice are useful on this. My wet finger in the air suggests that Tory members are as (far) right wing as their party – or more so. For the other parties my sense is that their members are more progressive than their leaderships and their policies. I use the term progressive as I find simple left-right outdated and does not capture today’s more complex, multi-dimensional politics.
As to where the voters are, it seems to be messy and even volatile. And a reminder that only a tiny portion of the electorate are party members. Maybe thats why the parties are being so bland and cautious. They are all in don’t frighten the horses mode. That does not make them necessarily ‘right wing’.
I have tried voting and viewing results on a few polls now but nothing happens. How do I fix this, I am using DuckDuckgo browser which is designed to prevent tracking.
I am afraid that browser turns off javascript and the polls rely on it
Sorry, there is nothing I can do about that