Public Opinion and Polling around the World: A Historical Encyclopedia

As this review is being written public opinion polling in the UK has reached a new frenzy. We are now one week into a general election campaign and newspapers and the broadcasting media carry almost daily polls. These consistently predict a victory for Tony Blair and “New” Labour, but as these volumes note (p. 592), opinion polls have wrongly predicted the outcome of British elections before, most notably in 1970 and 1992, and perhaps will be wrong again. By the time this review is being read the UK 2005 election will be history and a new government will be in...