Gauge Opinion has published the full results of its post budget poll. The results indicate that 54% of the population of England and Wales expect to be worse off over the next year. The poll was carried out immediately after the budget between 4pm and 6pm on the 22nd June and is the first public reaction to the Coalition Government's emergency budget statement.
Congratulations to Mrs Cross from Exeter - winner of the £250 prize draw!
54.4% percent of the people in England and Wales expect to be worse off in a year’s time according to an instant text poll carried immediately after the budget statement. 17.6% believe that they will be better off with 16.8% thinking that their finances will stay the same. 11.1% didn’t know.
The poll conducted by Gauge Opinion was carried out between 4pm and 6pm after the chancellor had made his Budget statement in the House of Commons. The poll participants were randomly selected from a database of 3.5 million mobile phone numbers and contained a spread of age, gender and region to reflect the UK population as a whole.
The poll is the first test of public opinion following George Osbourne’s emergency budget statement.
Men were more confident than women. With 20.2% of men expecting things to get better for them over the next year compared to 15.5% of women.
The most pessimistic region was the Midlands with 58% thinking that things would get worse over the next year. The most confident was the South East.
The Chancellor announced that he was restoring the link between average earnings and pensions in the budget. However, older people were less likely to have formed an opinion about their economic at this stage. Over 50% replying that they didn’t know whether they would be better off in a year’s time.
Gauge Opinion is one of the first polling companies in the UK to use text messages to conduct opinion polls. 480 people took part in the survey. Full tables and a detailed methodology will be published on the Gauge Opinion website within two days. The results are weighted by age, region and gender to ensure a close representation to the UK population as a whole.
Gauge Opinion Ltd are conducting another text poll after The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, delivers his first 2010 Budget speech to the House of Commons on 22 June 2010.
Partnered with DLG, a major player in the market research and data distribution sector, Gauge Opinion has access to a database of 3.5 million mobile numbers of people aged 18 and over within the UK.
Our team of experts, including an ex-MORI researcher will send out the text immediately after Osborne concludes his speech. With speed on our side given that most people reply to a text within 5 minutes, we will gather responses, weight the data and results will be available all a matter of hours.
In his speech Mr. Osborne will outline how the government plans to raise and spend money during the coming year and the details of the £6bn of spending cuts to be made.
The Chancellor starts his speech at 12.30 on 22 June and we plan to find out how the UK respond to our new Government’s plans.
To take part in our poll register today by visiting www.gaugeopinion.co.uk/join
Gauge Opinion has secured access to 3.5 million mobile phone numbers to launch its new text polling service. By teaming up with leading marketing data supply group DLG.
Gauge Opinion is now able to carry out opinion polls by SMS text message of a representative sample of the UK population.
Our database of mobile phone numbers come with the necessary demographic information to ensure our polls accurately reflect public opinion across the country as a whole.
Today in the UK, most people have access to a mobile phone. More people have access to a mobile phone than have access to the internet. We believe that text messaging is the fastest way to create nationally representative UK opinion polls.
Our research team, including a former MORI researcher, is able to weight the responses to our polls so that the different groups within nation are properly represented in the final published poll results.
Many opinion polls are carried out over the internet or over the phone. The results can take several days to generate. However, most people reply to a text message on their mobile phone within an hour. Email and internet polls can take up to 24 hours to generate the same response levels. Text and mobile internet can be used to gauge public opinion faster than any other method. In a fast moving world with 24 hour news we believe we can make a real difference be getting the public view into the agenda at the same pace.
For more information please contact the Gauge Opinion team on 0845 3899909.
Last month Steven had the pleasure of visiting The Sreepur Village; one of our partnered charities. The Sreepur Village is a small non-religious, non-political organisation which funds and runs the Sreepur Women & Children's Village situated in rural Bangladesh.
The Village presently houses 500 babies and children and over 100 destitute women. The village provides a loving environment, food, clothing, education, and vocational training so that they can look forward to an independent adult life.
Steven was in Bangladesh for some meetings with political parties in Dhaka; the busy capital of Bangladesh. The village is situated two hours north of Dhaka so Steven was able to travel up there to spend the afternoon, meeting the organizers, look in on some of the childrens’ classes (without causing too much distraction) and really get a feel for the hard work done by all to ensure the village is a fun, safe, loving and beneficial environment for all of its’ inhabitants.
Gauge Opinion are delighted to be partnered with such a fantastic cause and will continue to support The Sreepur Village for as long as they let us!
As the credits rolled on the Channel 4 Chancellor’s debate last night, a text message was fired off to the Gauge Opinion members’ mobiles. Within minutes the verdict was in and it was a clear victory for Vince Cable. 48% felt that the Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson won the debate with 18% giving the nod to George Osbourne and only 10% identifying the current Chancellor as the winner. However, 25% couldn’t decide between the three.
We are also beginning to make donations to our partner charities now for everyone that takes part. I am currently in Bangladesh, doing some work for the Westminster Foundation and hope to be able to fit in a visit the Sreepur Village who are one of our charities that benefit every time someone signs up to take part in our text polls.
Our sample size is still not quite big enough to make a confident assertion about how well this result reflects the opinion of the British public as a whole. However, more and more people are signing up at gaugeopinion.co.uk
As Gordon Brown gets ready to go to the country in the General Election, Gauge Opinion text poll panel members will be poised to track the twists and turns of the campaign with their texting fingers.
As Alistair Darling sat down after delivering his budget statement today, the mobile phone text alerts of the Gauge Opinion text polling panel started ringing. Our first text poll was up and running and we were keen to see how quickly we could gauge the political reaction to the big story of the day.
We asked whether Alistair Darling’s budget had made people more or less likely to vote Labour in the coming election and the news for Labour is not great. For 54% of those responding all the economic statistics, tax changes and spending cuts had made no difference whatsoever to how they were planning to vote. For 29% of the panel the budget had made them less likely to vote Labour. Only 17% were sufficiently impressed to indicate that they were now more likely to vote Labour as a result of the contents of the Chancellor’s budget briefcase.
And the Gauge Opinion text polling panel members came through this trial with flying colours. This was our first text poll run primarily to test the system and see how quickly we could gather and analyse the data. Gauge Opinion text poll panel members clearly have speedy texting thumbs. 50% of our members responded within an hour and 75% within 3 or 4 hours. We still need to recruit some more panel members before we can claim that our network fully represents the views of the UK population. This poll was just of 100 people and we need 1000 to be properly representative.
But the technology works, our panel members are happy to reply to political opinion polls quickly. Now we just need to a few more people to register their mobile phone numbers at www.gaugeopinion.co.uk and stand by for the next gauge opinion text poll. So sign up now and start texting your views into the news.