Chris Curtis Profile picture
Sep 15, 2020 7 tweets 2 min read Read on X
I'm increasingly starting to think the Conservative's don't actually know how they won last year.
The debate always seems to be framed as if as long as the Tories keep hold of the average Leave voter then it's plain sailing.

Except they won last year because they got the support of 74% of Leave voters, while Labour only won the support of 49% of Remainers.
The reasons for this include (among, I'm sure, many other things):
a) More popular leader
b) Perceived to be more competent
c) Seen as "getting Brexit done" (which also appealed to enough Con leaning Remain voters)
If the Tories lose a chunk of more moderate Leave voters, while also losing some more Remainer who stuck with them, then it won't end well.

And reigniting an aggressive Brexit debate (when you said you would get it done) ain't gonna play well with them.
Of course, there are loads of other things that could be going on.

Could be that they think they think they need to pass the law anyway, so might as well make the attack.

It is also better for the Conservatives for the media to be focusing on this than testing.
But the idea that this is some ingenious trap that screws Starmer and the Labour party is based on a massive misunderstanding of where the public are and how the Tories won.
.@jamesjohnson252 has also written on a similar theme

spectator.co.uk/article/boris-…

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More from @chriscurtis94

May 3, 2023
I just can't get on board with these arguments at all, it misses such basic points!

Firstly, the Tory vote share is up on Theresa May's 2019 performance (see below). Sure, Labour is up by a lot more, BUT the Tories don't just face Labour in local elections. Image
So the Tories SHOULD be making progress from other places, to offset some of their losses to Labour. This is particularly true of independents, over 1000 of whom won a seat in 2019.
The reason the comparison to 1995 is bullshit is not because of the swing, but because of the number of seats up.

In 1995, the Tories lost 2,018 out of their 7,985 seats, so 25% of all the ones they held.

If they lost 25% of the 3,564 they held in 2019, that would be 890 seats.
Read 6 tweets
Feb 8, 2023
Going to do a bit of a thread of this because I think it's a good opportunity to tie together some thoughts I've been having about current polling.

I say this as someone who knows about polling, not as a Labour candidate, but I also won't judge anyone sceptical of my bias. 🧵
Most importantly, the raw sample that @FindoutnowUK provides is undoubtedly one of the best on the market - completely out of the league of what we see from most other online panel samples. I started including it in the mix for the Opinium sample before I stopped being involved.
@FindoutnowUK This is a really important point. One of the most important trends in polling right now is that online panel samples are dramatically decreasing in quality. Increasingly, people who take part in online surveys are not people who are real people giving high quality responses.
Read 18 tweets
Jan 17, 2023
Just a reminder that this unworkable, expensive, undemocratic policy was introduced after the dodgiest use of survey data I have EVER seen from a government body.

electoralcommission.org.uk/sites/default/…
The whole argument for this policy is not that personification is a big problem in polling stations (spoiler alert - it isn't) but because there might be a perception that personification is a problem.
So they did themselves a little survey, which basically found that nobody actually thinks personification is a problem either. However, they then spun the results to make it sound like the public did think it was a problem.
Read 8 tweets
Oct 8, 2022
A thread on focus groups, and one reason why the sentiment towards Labour within them might not have shifted as much as the polls 🧵
Importantly, focus groups shouldn't generally be used to work out "point estimates", that is to say, they shouldn't really be used to work out how favourable the public is overall towards Labour or Starmer. However, given they are...
...I think we have seen enough focus groups now to know that sentiment within them towards Labour has not shifted as much as we have seen in polls. A quick thought on one reason why that might be.
Read 11 tweets
Oct 6, 2022
Today's everyday hero is my landlord, who is "willing" to allow me to stay in the flat for a 29% rent increase.
This feels like a good time to point out that the Tories are wrong if they think they can ignore the concerns of renters.

Our polling for the @RentersReformCo showed the majority of renters who voted Tory in 2019 had switched away. This was BEFORE their recent poll crash. Image
But even if we look at voters as a whole, homeowners and renters, across all social grades, people are more likely to say they are pro-tenant than pro-landlord. Image
Read 5 tweets
Aug 8, 2022
I wrote something a few weeks ago that I was very happy with, however, the Tories decided to bring down Johnson at the same time as me releasing it.

So a fresh thread (with charts and everything) on the importance of working-age voters without degrees 🧵
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
As we all know, nobody takes analysis seriously unless you attach a fun-sounding name, so I have called these WAND voters. I hate it, but this is the world we live in.

It includes anybody without a degree level qualification, under 65, and not living in big cities.
It is also worth putting this in the context of the “political realignment” that has happened over the past decade.

Older voters have moved towards the Tories, and younger graduates have moved towards Labour. This group has not really been spoken about within that analysis.
Read 11 tweets

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