have you been telephone polled about what should happen to the old site Ashmount School left to go

David Barry

<div>I originally posted about the new Islington Free School  here:</div><div><br></div><div>http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2013/06/the-new-islington-free-school/</div><div><br></div><div> if anyone wants to read the background to this story you will find it there.</div><div><br></div><div>On the 24 July  at about half five in the evening,  I received a phone call from a pleasant man who told me he was carrying out a telephone opinion poll on local political issues. He said he was working for a company called "UK Ground Comms"  A google search shows that a company of that name exists, but it does not seem to have a web site. I suppose a bit of effort at Companies House might throw up some more information. He said he wanted to ask me four questions. I got him to repeat them, and wrote them down immediately after the call.</div><div><br></div><div>1. Did I know about the controversy regarding the Old Ashmount Site?  - in order to find out more I said "no'  </div><div><br></div><div>He then read me a set script thus:</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>"Local residents have successfully campaigned to obtain government  money to put a new primary school on the old Ashmount School Site. Islington Council do not want this, but want to build 140 homes on the site instead."</div><div><br></div><div>Following this he asked</div><div><br></div><div>2.. Do you support having a new primary school on the site?</div><div><br></div><div>3. Which political party will you be voting for at the next local election?</div><div><br></div><div>4. if a particular party were to say it supported the putting of a new school on the site would you change your vote?</div><div><br></div><div>When I asked he said he could not disclose who the client was.</div><div><br></div><div>I would be interested in comments.</div>

andy

UK Ground Communications is based in Norwich. One of the Directors appears to be a regional campaigns organiser for the Lib Dems in the East of England. The other appears to be the Lib Dem constituency organiser for Norwich. They are also about 25 and set the company up last year. <div><br></div><div>So, "Lib Dems" would appear to be the answer.</div>

andy

I got twitter handles, career biogs, dates of birth and home addresses of these guys in about 5 minutes all from public searches. Makes you wonder what GCHQ have on us.

Mirandola

Does this count as push-polling? http://yougov.co.uk/news/2011/05/16/message-testing-v-push-polling/

David Barry

@andy deeply impressive of you!

David Barry

@Mirandola<;div><br></div><div>Thank you very much for that link, which was informative. </div><div><br></div><div>There is also this quote from wikipedia:</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px; ">"True push polls tend to be very short, with only a handful of questions, to maximise the number of calls that can be made. Any data obtained (if used at all) is secondary in importance to negatively affecting the targeted candidate. Legitimate polls are often used by candidates to test potential messages. They frequently ask about either positive and negative statements about any or all major candidates in an election and always ask demographic information at the end."</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px; ">Well, it was short, with only a handful of questions, and it did not ask for any demographic information at the end.</span></div>

Mirandola

Curiouser and curiouser.