The Wisdom of Crowds is one of my favourite books. I'm persuaded by its basic contention that the average/ collective wisdom of the crowd is superior to that of the usual expert classes. One of author James Surowiecki's 'proofs' for the wisdom of crowds is the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? quiz show:
“When a contestant on the show is stumped by a question, he has a couple of choices in asking for help: the audience or someone he's designated as an expert. The experts do a reasonable job: They get the answer right 65% of the time. But the audience is close to perfect: It gets the answer right 91% of the time, even though it's made up of people who have nothing better to do than sit in a TV studio”.
Tonight we'll test the wisdom of the ConservativeHome crowd. Over the last six hours I've sought your predictions for the scale of Tory gains tonight. One ConservativeHomie - Steed - has predicted losses of 30 seats (the only prediction of losses). At the other end of the predictions spectrum is Bel with a prediction of 456 Tory gains. The mean average prediction of 66 ConservativeHomies comes out at +256*. Tom Ainsworth with his prediction of 254 comes closest to this mean.
Footnote: The wisdom of the crowds fails when there are problems of groupthink. I haven't noticed much groupthink on ConservativeHome. You all appear pretty independent-minded. Neither have I spotted any impossibly large predictions by Cameron-sceptics today wanting Mr C to look like he has fallen short or, on the other hand, Cameron enthusiasts, making excessively cautious predictions. My guess is that the great prize of a ConservativeHome mug has made you all reasonably focused and honest!
* I haven't double-checked this rapid calculation but it seems about right.
Shares in Specsavers, Editor? That has to be the smallest small-print I've ever seen! That's what a career in banking must do to you...
Posted by: Daniel Vince-Archer | May 04, 2006 at 22:21
Are the 10 results already declared 100% postal voting wards?
I was going to ask what the average was of all our predictions. Glad you kept score!
Posted by: Richard | May 04, 2006 at 22:27
I think Labour are going to get a booting. Good luck to all the Conservative candidates tonight, especially those in urban areas!
Posted by: Henry Whitmarsh | May 04, 2006 at 22:28
Well one of the BBC declared results is Stevenage, but I would think that's because not enough wards were being contested for control of the council to be wrested from the red menace.
Posted by: Daniel Vince-Archer | May 04, 2006 at 22:30
Daniel, BBC has got 10 councils declared, all ones which as you guessed cannot be wrestled from control as they are electing by thirds in a huge majority situation. There are 5 Labour Councils, 4 Conservative Councils and 1 Lib Dem Council that is faced with this situation.
Posted by: Chris | May 04, 2006 at 22:34
Ah yes, don't be misled by the BBC 'declared' results... Further research reveals that other 'declared' councils are also those where there weren't enough seats being contested for control of the council to change hands.
Posted by: Daniel Vince-Archer | May 04, 2006 at 22:35
Mystery solved!
I'll try and shut up until the results come in now!
Posted by: Richard | May 04, 2006 at 22:36
Beat me to it Chris!
Posted by: Daniel Vince-Archer | May 04, 2006 at 22:37
I reckon somewhere around 304 seats gained ...
Posted by: green giraffe | May 04, 2006 at 22:38
I'm quite optimistic about lots of seats.
I've been dragging reluctant voters out to the polling station.
If there's one lesson I've learnt it's that people are not impressed when you come knocking at 9.45pm asking if they've voted yet or not.
On the plus side, I had a War Veteran say he was very proud of me for being Conservative, so it's all good.
Now to watch the seats roll in.
So are we Live-Blogging, Editor?
and will the mug be presented at the ConservativeHome Awards?
Posted by: Biodun | May 04, 2006 at 22:43
hello i am watching from new zealand and i expect the conservatives to do very well and will have about 300+ gains tonight! good luck
Posted by: micheal warren | May 04, 2006 at 22:56
Thanks Michael. I was at a meeting with Don Brash recently. Very impressive man.
Posted by: Editor | May 04, 2006 at 22:59
yes don brash is a very good man, the national party (conservative) in new zealand is becomming very strong now after massive election gains last year. Labour just held on but the general feeling is that labour will be voted out in 2 years time
Posted by: micheal warren | May 04, 2006 at 23:02
No problem Daniel, glad to be of service!
Anyone else watching question time? Seems to be kind of mixed, though the panel is taking every opportunity to beat up Labour.
Posted by: Chris | May 04, 2006 at 23:26
Good luck with ousting those shoddy, hopeless Labour councillors, dears. Edna raises a glass of her finest Glenlivet - copious extra drinking will be undertaken by me if your (over?)confident predictions become reality tonight. Mmmmm... we shall see, we shall see.
Posted by: Edna Sweetlove | May 04, 2006 at 23:29
Hague being quite amusing on Question Time,better than most recent Tory performers but loudest applause by far going to Richard Littlejohn who totally beat up (in a figurative sense) Margeret Beckett.Littlejohn also got loud applause unfortunately for calling DC's campaign on Green issues a'stunt'.Cameron will have to be careful.
Posted by: malcolm | May 04, 2006 at 23:36
What was most important on Question Time was the thunderous applause whenever someone told Margaret Beckett that she was talking nonsense or that she (and Labour) could no longer use the last Conservative Government as an excuse after nine years.
About time too and it really shows the extent of public displeasure with Labour.
Posted by: JohnM | May 05, 2006 at 00:48
Yes, that was astonishingly anti-Labour feeling in QT. Correlates with 25%, which is right down to the bare bones core vote.
ps drams of Talisker for me!
Posted by: Andrew | May 05, 2006 at 01:02
Labour gained 1 seat in Worcester from Independent (he had suffered a stroke)) mainly because of a strong showing by the BNP. We held the ward I also represent in the city centre (Asian Muslim councillor in a very mixed area socially) with a 500 majority but only held the middle-class commuter seat by 54. It was hunt the Labour vote among the Victorian terraces where I live. All other seats we held with very secure majorities. The best councillors got the best votes.
Posted by: Frank | May 05, 2006 at 01:27
And I'm afraid we flopped against the Lib Dems
Posted by: Frank | May 05, 2006 at 01:33
We've just GAINED me!!!
I won my ward in Huntingdonshire, taking my Ward from the Lib Dems. I reduced a 450 majority to 90 in 2004 and have just gained a 250 majority tonight.
What a day!
Posted by: Richard Bailey | May 05, 2006 at 01:34
congratulations
Posted by: micheal warren | May 05, 2006 at 01:36
I'm kicking myself for missing a trick and not just taking the average before making my prediction. I blame in on my Russian lesson draining my thought processes.
Well done the avergae provided an extremely accurate prediction and it just goes to show how it is the full range of views on this site, avoiding polarisiation, that makes it so relevant.
A very good result in London, great to see Labour getting a kicking, but as feared before, support seems to be strengthening but in a narrower base within the M25.
The challenge from here has got to be to focus outside London as to hope for government, there has to be gains outside the South-East.
Posted by: Chad | May 05, 2006 at 08:17
What a lovely day! At 3.22am I was swearing at the BBC thinking that THEY pulled the plug just as Nick Robinson had to admit something positive about the Tories, but it seems it wasn't just the BBC. Nevermind, Labour can't spin away from this one!
Posted by: Patsy Sergeant | May 05, 2006 at 09:16
A truly great night - really enjoyable. LimpDem challenge totally fizzled out against both us and Labour - some brilliant results such as holding Solihull, picking up seats all over (not just the South East). Yes more work to get into the Northern Labour redoubts but we knew that. I don't remember enjoying an election night so much for a long time. I reember reading that more than 250 gains was a spectacular result but it hasn't taken the Beeb long to turn this into 'a fairly good night'. Most gratifying was it is clearly us benefiting from Labour's problems, and without the special case of Richmond the Lib Dems would have performed terribly in London.
Special congratulations to all the party workers in Swindon - excellent result with an increased majority.
Got 2.5 hours sleep and am now at work operating on autopilot!
Posted by: kingbongo | May 05, 2006 at 10:19
Could we have a table of results published? Just so we don't have to trawl through the thread?
Posted by: Howard Stevenson | May 06, 2006 at 18:42