Abstract:

In the weeks just prior to the British general election of May 1979 Research Services Ltd. conducted a series of four surveys for a London Sunday newspaper, the Observer. In some ways, there was nothing unusual about the four surveys. They were of a kind often conducted by polling organisations for newspapers and television networks during election campaigns; the samples were not especially large, and nothing new was attempted in the way of interviewing techniques. In other ways, however, the RSL/Observer undertaking was unusual, possibly unique.