Opinion Polls

Abstract

Opinion polls attained an altogether new level of prominence during the 1959–64 parliament and they had an unquestionable impact on the style in which the 1964 election was fought and on the morale of the protagonists. There was, of course, nothing new about the existence of the polls. The Gallup poll had flourished for more than a quarter of a century and had made forecasts in every post-war election. Other polls were published from time to time in the 1950s and the use of sampling in market research expanded and became more familiar. During the 1959 election four polls were published and it is plain that the narrowing of the gap revealed by them gave a perhaps spurious excitement to the campaign.