Comments on: Polls Made Easy http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollytics/2008/11/10/polls-made-easy/ Politics, elections and piffle plinking Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:43:07 +1100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Possum http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollytics/2008/11/10/polls-made-easy/comment-page-1/#comment-11291 Possum Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:45:25 +0000 http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollytics/?p=2709#comment-11291 Brian, Third parties don't have enough support in State and Federal Elections to win government. Two Party Preferred might be the same old paradigm, but it's also called reality. There is no point tracking, on a regular basis, third party votes. Their vote estimates are noisy, medium term trends are difficult if not impossible to discern and it would effectively double the work required to track the polling data. So the minor parties get seen here every now and again when they are looked at specifically. When the rhetoric of minor parties being the new black is matched by actual electoral support, I'll start to treat them as major party equals. Brian,
Third parties don’t have enough support in State and Federal Elections to win government. Two Party Preferred might be the same old paradigm, but it’s also called reality.

There is no point tracking, on a regular basis, third party votes. Their vote estimates are noisy, medium term trends are difficult if not impossible to discern and it would effectively double the work required to track the polling data.

So the minor parties get seen here every now and again when they are looked at specifically.

When the rhetoric of minor parties being the new black is matched by actual electoral support, I’ll start to treat them as major party equals.

]]> By: Brian Walters http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollytics/2008/11/10/polls-made-easy/comment-page-1/#comment-11290 Brian Walters Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:20:51 +0000 http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollytics/?p=2709#comment-11290 I went to the new site and was very disappointed. Sadly, it is just the same old paradigm of the two major party groupings. Life is not to be reduced to binary alternatives. There are many colours and many shades, and reinforcing old stereotypes of left and right, when many issues just don't fall into that simplification, is a cop out. Rather like match race sailors, the two major parties shadow each other, each trying to take the other’s wind rather than determining the best way to complete the course – and often without any moral compass. No credible political analysis in Australia can now ignore the third party alternatives. I went to the new site and was very disappointed.
Sadly, it is just the same old paradigm of the two major party groupings.
Life is not to be reduced to binary alternatives. There are many colours and many shades, and reinforcing old stereotypes of left and right, when many issues just don’t fall into that simplification, is a cop out.
Rather like match race sailors, the two major parties shadow each other, each trying to take the other’s wind rather than determining the best way to complete the course – and often without any moral compass.
No credible political analysis in Australia can now ignore the third party alternatives.

]]> By: Ad astra http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollytics/2008/11/10/polls-made-easy/comment-page-1/#comment-11289 Ad astra Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:56:50 +0000 http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollytics/?p=2709#comment-11289 Great display Poss - the very best. Congratulations on yet another excellent innovation. Great display Poss – the very best. Congratulations on yet another excellent innovation.

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