The Opinion Polls and the 1970 British General Election

A FTER EACH British General Election the London Times publishes in book form its authoritative Guide to the House of Commons. Over the years the contents have been constant -the votes given to each candidate in the 630 constituencies, regionally aggregated figures of votes the parties, a section on successful women candidates, occupational and educational background of the new House of Commons, etc., and a brief, straightforward, for the record account of how the parties conducted the three weeks of campaigning that precedes the voting. The 1970 volume, however, has one break with tradition. Its section on the election campaign opens with a boisterous and obviously delighted account of the failure of the opinion polls (The Times itself had commissioned and prominently published and publicized its own Marplan Poll, which indicated a massive Labor victory). According to the opening words of the Times Guide: