What BNP Bounce?

Contra good Brother Hoskin, I’m not terribly troubled by this YouGov poll:

The survey found that 22 per cent of voters would ‘seriously consider’ voting for the BNP in a future local, general or European election. This included four per cent who said they would ‘definitely’ consider voting for the party, three per cent who would ‘probably’ consider it, and 15 per cent who said they were ‘possible’ BNP voters.”

The poll, at least as reported by the Telegraph, does not find one in five voters considering the BNP. It finds that 15% of voters might, hypothetically speaking, consider casting a hypothetical vote for the BNP. In other words: they won’t. It is, in any case, a leading question since, asked if you would consider something many people will say that, gosh, yes, they are prepared to consider something no matter what that something might be. People are nice that way.

And so, on the back of their biggest publicity coup, like ever, the BNP’s version of a post-conference bounce amounts to a measly 4% of voters “definitely” prepared to consider voting for them. Bully for them!

By my reckoning, this means Britons are more likely believe in the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny than to consider seriously the idea voting for the BNP.