Poll Position?  

Ok, the picture has nothing at all to do with the article other than it fits the title nicely! (it's a screen shot of one of my favourite early 1980s computer games – Pole Position – on the Atari 2600). All politicians will tell you they don't look at opinion polls; that the only poll that counts is the real election. You'll have heard all that before, I'm sure!   Firstly, don’t you believe it… if politicians didn't concern themselves with such trivia, why then do the various polling organisations do so much work privately for political parties? That aside, as we approach the General Election, both politicians and the media will become ever more obsessed with a one percent drop or rise in a particular party's poll ratings. So just what can we gauge from the polls? Firstly, it is clear that the Conservatives have been ahead of Labour consistently...