Latest YouGov polls - Remain back in lead by 1%

Because by convention such major constitutional questions are put to the people

Posted from TSR Mobile

Not always. When was there a referendum on the ECHR? Or devolution?


Posted from TSR Mobile

There were referendums on devolution...

Posted from TSR Mobile

Not always. When was there a referendum on ... Or devolution?

So there was.
I still don't believe that we are holding one due to convention. It's as others have said, down to UKIP.

Posted from TSR Mobile

There have been many, many referenda on various forms of devolution: in 1998 on having a mayor for London; in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland on regional devolution (in 1973, 1979, 1997, 1998, 2011); on Scottish independence (2014); on devolution in north-east England in 2004; and on mayors in about fifty towns and cities across the country (various dates between 2001 and 2014).

And only 2 (or 3 including today) across the whole of the UK.

It's a rare thing.

Just those people they polled, who were willing to express an opinion. British public more broadly won't be so shy when voting anonymously

#BelieveInBritain

You do know your vote can be identified? (But it would be illegal to do so...)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_ballot#Secrecy_vs._reliability

Morning all. Couple of polls in from our ever-busy internet pollsters YouGov.
https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/06/17/eu-referendum-remain-lead-one/

Remain average lead 1%.



The effect of Jo Cox's murder? Or the furore over Farage's poster?

Personally I always thought Remain would harden as the day approached and this appears to be supporting that view.

EDIT: YouGov say these polls were done before Jo Cox was killed.

"
While there will be speculation about whether this movement is connected to the tragic death of Jo Cox, we do not think that it is. The fieldwork for our Good Morning Britain poll was entirely conducted before she was attacked and a third of the responses to our Sunday Times poll were also done before news of her death was reported.The underlying figures suggest the movement may be more to do with people worrying about the economic impact of leaving the European Union. In the Sunday Times poll 33% of people said they thought that they would be personally worse off if Britain left the EU, up from 23% a fortnight ago and easily the highest we have recorded on this question.
"

One cannot help but wonder if at times in the past, the security services or independent contractors might not have been brought in to alter the votes. For example, to put the Tories in office at key moments, or perhaps in the past to alter the results of some by-elections or similar. Organising it would not be all that difficult, a simple matter of switching ballot boxes between their collection at polling stations and their arrival at counts in selected key marginals.

One cannot help but wonder if at times in the past, the security services or independent contractors might not have been brought in to alter the votes. For example, to put the Tories in office at key moments, or perhaps in the past to alter the results of some by-elections or similar. Organising it would not be all that difficult, a simple matter of switching ballot boxes between their collection at polling stations and their arrival at counts in selected key marginals.

One cannot help but wonder if at times in the past, the security services or independent contractors might not have been brought in to alter the votes. For example, to put the Tories in office at key moments, or perhaps in the past to alter the results of some by-elections or similar. Organising it would not be all that difficult, a simple matter of switching ballot boxes between their collection at polling stations and their arrival at counts in selected key marginals.

Sorry FOS but sometimes the majority of the electorate do vote for the Tories ;-).

Very rarely do they have an absolute majority (i.e. share >50%), but FPTP means they don't have to

I agree that, for example, 35% percent of the vote with a 65-70% turnout isn't exactly a majority (for all political parties) which is why I wouldn't oppose making voting mandatory as long as there was a "None of the Above/You'll all Rubbish" box.

One cannot help but wonder if at times in the past, the security services or independent contractors might not have been brought in to alter the votes. For example, to put the Tories in office at key moments, or perhaps in the past to alter the results of some by-elections or similar. Organising it would not be all that difficult, a simple matter of switching ballot boxes between their collection at polling stations and their arrival at counts in selected key marginals.

Another of those annoying facts to consider.

Before joining the EU the UK had slowest growth of G7. Since joining EU it has the highest.



Posted from TSR Mobile

I'm not sure you can attribute that to the EU. It looks like UK growth only really started to shoot up in the mid 1980s when privatisation under Thatcher kicked in.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/gdp


I'm not going to dispute that the economic side of the EU hasn't been positive but until 1993 the EU was far more about just economics rather than becoming the the organisation it is not. It's not about the past, it's about the future & where the EU is going, which is even further down the superstate route, isn't where I want to see it go.