The pre-election "ground war" is being won by the Conservatives

I am alerted to this post by Professor Paul Whiteley of the British Election Study concerning its pre-election survey of voters.

It asked voters if they have been contacted by one of the political parties in the last six months - be it by a doorstep canvasser, via a leaflet, phone call or email, or through other social networking media.

The hit rates for each of the parties were as follows:

Conservatives - 58%
Lib Dems - 46%
Labour - 35%
BNP - 9%
Ukip - 7%
Green - 3%

Whilst the national campaign as played out in the broadcast and print media and on the web (the "air war") is clearly very significant in terms of setting agendas and so on, the importance of the ground war must not be underestimated.

These figures are extremely encouraging in terms of demonstrating the effectiveness of the Conservative campaigning machine - which, lest we forget, relies for the most part on the leg work of tens of thousands of volunteers on the ground.

Jonathan Isaby