Electoral Dysfunction

The General Election in the UK that wasn’t supposed to be black and white, actually was, which for the pollsters meant it actually wasn’t – if you can get your head around that.

In the run up to voting day, the pollsters had the Conservatives and Labour in a dead heat, each with 34% of the vote. The pollsters predictions shaped the media dialogue for months in the run up to the election only to be completely wrong.

Against all expectations, The Conservatives got in with a majority. Even Nate Silver, the American statistician who correctly predicted 49 out of 50 states in the 2008 presidential election, and then went 50 for 50 in 2012, missed it by a mile.