UKIP

ElectionWatch - 1st March

Mon, 03/01/2010 - 00:41

Welcome to the first edition of Election Watch, an irregular evidence-based look at the coming General Election.

I'll be working on a major new project relating to the election in the next few weeks, details of which to come soon. But in the meantime, I thought it would be fun to do a regular blog of evidence-based tidbits about the elections, looking at the latest data and reflecting on possible outcomes generally, and for science.

Polls are like snow-flakes
The papers have excitedly reported that a Yougov poll this weekend shows the Conservatives sitting just 2 points ahead of Labour, a result which if repeated would leave Labour still the largest party, though without a majority.

Up to a Quarter of British MEPs in Denial Over Climate

Mon, 11/09/2009 - 12:45

Back in June, Frank Swain and I argued for evidence-based policy ahead of the European Elections, and called for greater scrutiny of the various parties' policies on science. Inevitably for a pair of science bloggers pretending to be Guardian journalists, we were ignored. The election came and went, people elected a parade of fringe characters, and the result for science policy can be seen in the following statistic, researched and calculated over several very tedious evenings.

By my count, 23% of Britain's 72 MEPs are either explicit climate 'skeptics', or are members of 'skeptic' parties who remain silent on the subject (I use the term in quotes since climate 'skeptics' are generally about as 'skeptical' as 9/11 'truthers' are truth-oriented - googling for things that support your case and credulously accepting them as 'fact' isn't skepticism).