Nick Clegg Sheffield Hallam Seat Won, Race on to Save Lib Dem Marginal's
ElectionOracle / UK General Election May 05, 2015 - 10:17 AM GMTBy: Nadeem_Walayat
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, who apparently where the opinion pollsters are concerned is at risk of losing his Sheffield Hallam seat to Labours Oliver Coppard, said goodbye to the good folks of Sheffield Hallam with a thank you note sent to most if not all residents and began his 36 hour 1000 mile dash on the Lib Dem battle bus across the UK to bolster the vote in more than a dozen Lib Dem marginal constituencies.
One would imagine that if Nick Clegg was seriously at risk of losing his seat such as suggested by the Lord Ashcroft polls amongst others, then Nick Clegg would be busy door stepping right upto the last minute to prevent such a Lib Dem catastrophe from happening.
Lord Ashcroft Sheffield Hallam Opinion Polls
| Party | 2010 | 28th March 2015 | 29th April 2015 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrat | 53% | 34% | 36% | |
| Labour | 16% | 36% | 37% | |
| Conservative | 23% | 16% | 15% | |
| UKIP | 2% | 7% | 7% | |
| Green | 2% | 6% | 4% | |
| English Democrats | 1% | 1% | 1% | |
However, the truth that the Lib-Dems well understand is that the opinion polls are WRONG, and have been wrong for some time as I have written of for the past 2 months that rather than Nick Clegg losing his Sheffield Hallam seat, instead he is likely to be re-elected with a sizeable majority of at least 5,000 votes.
27 Mar 2015 - Sheffield Hallam Election Battle 2015 - Lib Dems Go to War Whilst Labour Sleeps
However the trend to date of an highly intelligent and well organised and financed local Lib Dem campaign reinforces my earlier expectations for Nick Clegg to retain his Sheffield Hallam seat. Which given the weak Labour response to date suggests that Labours own private polling has concluded that it is just not worth wasting resources on trying to win. This implies that Nick Clegg could do much better than winning by 2,000 votes as I had originally envisioned a month ago, but instead now looks set to achieve a far more substantial majority of around 5,000 votes, which is contrary to the opinion polls that put the Lib Dems 10% behind Labour in Sheffield Hallam (Survation - LAB 33%, LD 23%, CON 22%, GREEN 12%, UKIP 9%).
The pollsters failure to recognise the fundamental fact that in this election in many constituencies such as Sheffield Hallam, this election is not between the Labour party and the Lib Dems or Conservatives but rather Labour is fighting against the Coalition party. Which means we will see tactical voting by Lib Dem and Conservatives voters on and exponentially greater scale than in 2010 with the resulting difference that the Lib-Dems will retain seats such as Sheffield Hallam with sizable majorities as illustrated by my comprehensive video analysis of the Sheffield Hallam election battle of 24th April:
Where instead of Sheffield Hallam being an election battle between Labour and the Lib-Dems -
Instead the reality for many voters following 5 years of coalition government is one of this -
This also means that for the Lib-Dems the real election battleground is not against Labour but the Conservatives where they are the main competitor, as the Tories are seeking to take at least 15 seats from the Lib Dems. Whilst at the same time trying to ensure the Lib-Dems retain as many seats as possible where Labour is second, and conversely Lib Dem voters whilst to a lesser extent are also likely to vote for the Tory candidate where Labour is opposing, especially as the prospects of a Labour- SNP outcome sends shivers down the spines of many English Labour and Lib-Dem voters. This will also prompt many potential UKIP voters to vote Conservative or Lib Dem rather than risk a Labour - SNP.
In terms of what I actually see as the most probable outcome for the general election primarily based on economic and market analysis rather than opinion polls, I refer to my in-depth analysis of 28th Feb that was most recently iterated in the following video:
- 28 Feb 2015 - UK General Election 2015 Seats Forecast - Who Will Win?
- 28 Feb 2015 - UK General Election 2015 - Forecasting Seats for SNP, LIb-Dems, UKIP and Others
UK General Election May 2015 Forecast Conclusion
My forecast conclusion is for the Conservatives to win 296 seats at the May 7th general election, Labour 2nd on 262 seats, with the full seats per political party breakdown as follows:
Therefore the most probable outcome is for a continuation of the ConDem Coalition government on 326 seats (296+30) where any shortfall would likely find support from the DUP's 8 seats.
The alternative is for a truly messy Lab-Lib SNP supported chaotic government on 327 seats (262+30+35) which in my opinion would be a truly disastrous outcome for Britain, nearly as bad as if Scotland had voted for independence last September.
Another possibility is that should the Conservatives do better than forecast i.e. secure over 300 seats but still fail to win an overall majority, then they may chose to go it alone with the plan to work towards winning a May 2016 general election.
The bottom line is that the opinion polls do not reflect how people will actually vote on May 7th when they are faced with a stark choice of steady as she goes ConDem government or take a huge gamble on Ed Milliband's Labour party. So in my opinion several millions of voters will chose to play it safe with ConDem which thus is the most probable outcome.
Also available a youtube video version of my forecast:
The bottom line is that a continuation of the Coalition government is the most probable outcome which means a combined total of at least 323 seats. Therefore come May 8th virtually all pollsters will have egg on their faces as the mainstream media will have flushed untold millions down the drain on commissioning opinion polls that turned out to be WRONG just as the polls were wrong in the run up to the Scottish referendum that was never a 50/50 proposition which at the time I concluded was mainly so as to allow pollsters to sell opinion polls and the mainstream press to sell copy and so it is the case with today's election campaign.
UK Saved From I.S. Threat But Scottish Independence Nightmare is Not Over!
There is another reason as well for why the polls were so close and that is one of SALES, the polling industry SELLING a tight election so that the gullible mainstream press would buy their polling services. Therefore painting a picture of a tight race by manipulating the data will have turned out to be a huge money spinner for the polling agencies.
My article concluded in the most probable forecast for the outcome of the result would be for at least show a 10% gap between NO and YES, and definitely not reflective of the mass hysteria.
Therefore the most probable outcome is inline with the polling ranges of before the YES campaigns intimidation and fear phase began to play a prominent role in the frenzy of campaigning of September that rather than a 50/50 tight race is more probably going to result in at least a 55% NO vote victory, and I would not be surprised if the NO vote even breaks above 60%!
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By Nadeem Walayat
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Nadeem Walayat has over 25 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis focuses on UK inflation, economy, interest rates and housing market. He is the author of five ebook's in the The Inflation Mega-Trend and Stocks Stealth Bull Market series that can be downloaded for Free.
Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication that presents in-depth analysis from over 1000 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets, thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk
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