The wait goes on
Fraser Nelson 9:07pm
"Boris is the Mayor" proclaims the Evening Standard. News to the rest of us, anxiously waiting. The poor souls must have held back the edition for a 5pm result, and decided to take a punt. "After a nail biting count, Mr Johnson was so far ahead on first preference votes he could not be caught, even after second preferences were taken into account" it says. He has "pulled off one of the most spectacular transformations of modern history". If by some freak Ken edges it, this newspaper will be a collectors’ item.
I saw a chap from Mori on TV earlier, looking worried. So he should be. Their polls were off. YouGov has yet again been proved the most accurate pollster here, getting the national vote share right. In my first political column for The Spectator I wrote that they were so accurate they had taken the fun out of polling night. Ditto this time. I suspect Stephan Shakespeare will be as happy a man as Boris tonight.
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Comments
Tiberius
May 2nd, 2008 9:22pmJon Craig of Sky News is in no doubt Boris has it.
molesworth 1
May 2nd, 2008 9:31pmI've got money on YouGov's '1st Pref' share positions so I'm just as anxious as you guys.
BTW anybody see an incoherent Tony Benn on BBC News just now (9:15 pm -ish). He seemed to prophecy a newLabour/Old Labour split. If they implode on that fault-line the newLabour succesor will win, i.e. Milliband, not Balls, possibly after a caretaker administration of either Straw or Johnson, whose prices on Ladbrokes 'Next Labour Leader'have reversed overnight.
"Gordon Brown. Not porridge, just toast.
Drew SW London
May 2nd, 2008 10:28pmCan anyone explain how come I've paid top dollar for "London Elects", but 24 hours after the polls closed we have no idea of the result? And who I can kick?
Presumably this bunch of half-wits is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Crapita.
For Chrissakes, a bunch of dippy checkout girls at Sainsbury's could have scanned things faster than this. Are these jokers all working for Mugabe?
carol42
May 2nd, 2008 10:58pmI joined YouGov as soon as it started. I could see the potential at once. Clearly you would get more honest answers online, it gave you time to think about the answers and naturally anyone joining was interested in politics and certain to vote. That I think is the reason for it's success. I used to work in market research and it was obvious this would work.
Waiting still
May 3rd, 2008 12:11amWtf. 00.09 and still waiting for results.
London voted yesterday for Christs sake
Fraser Nelson
May 3rd, 2008 8:59amTiberius, my doubt ended when ConservativeHome called it for BoJo at 10pm on Thursday. But as Americans know, there is a long and ignoble history of media outlets getting it wrong!