Every time we pick up a paper from now until the 6th May we’ll be bombarded by images of politicians /smiling/holding babies/waving enthusiastically and generally doing everything in their power to persuade us that they are the right person for the job.

As the use of the internet and social media in particular is providing the parties with new ways to reach the voting public (think Barack Obama’s all conquering campaign team – is he the first social media president?), it’s hard to believe that everyone is talking about a possible hung parliament for the 1st time since 1974.

Maybe that’s because some people in the UK are still getting this hideously wrong.  Either that or someone forgot to send the ‘How To’ memo to Stuart MacLennan.

This interesting little tool was passed round the office last week .  A great attempt by a not for profit organisation aimed at helping you cut through the spin and get straight to the policies.

However, it would seem that the first round of campaigning has done little to sway the mood of the voting public as the results from our own research showed.

We asked 1,000 people who they were going to vote for in the coming election. A massive 27.16% of people were still undecided, with 32.77% of that percentage being females compared to only 19.02% of males. There are also considerably more undecided’s in the 16-54 age bracket compared with those in the 55+ age bracket.

As the first unveiling of party manifestos gets underway and the PR and marketing strategies of the parties go in to over drive, it’ll be interesting to see who is the most successful in swaying ‘the undecided’.

We’ll run this poll again after the historical election TV debate to see who, if any, has managed to win over the undecided majority.

Alex

As a chocolate lover, I was more than concerned about the recent take over of Cadbury by American giant Kraft… many thoughts went through my head but biggest concern (due to my love of chocolate) is ‘will the chocolate go all Americany?’.  Sabrina, who sits next to me and is from Texas will disagree on this point, but American chocolate just doesn’t taste the same (and no Sabrina, it doesn’t taste better)!!!!

Now I know that I should be worried about the bigger picture: how this affects share prices? are jobs going to be lost in the UK as a result? etc etc…. but the media are covering that angle so I feel that I don’t have to!!!

So – I used GlideInsight, our online panel research tool to see what everyone out there thought about the takeover and quite rightly, over 45% of you are very upset that the take over has happened.

Whilst 27.72% (29.87% of women) worry about the chocolate not tasting the same (see it really does matter!).

For a serious angle I did also put a question into GlideInsight about whether people thought there were going to be job losses and a massive 59.21% (65.53% from the region of Midlands and Wales) of people agreed that it was inevitable as “it always happens in these circumstances”.  Only 7.23% of people thought that there wouldnt’ be job cuts in the UK (Kraft aren’t going to be too popular when the take over begins!).

So, I guess that Cadbury chocolate from Britain may never be the same (sniff, sniff) I guess I ‘ll just have to wait and see….  or maybe I’ll have to pledge allegiance to Nestle instead.

So in answer to Emma’s question about the British Airways strikes, drum roll please!…. 65.18% of people in the UK are backing British Airways and not the cabin crew over the potential strike at Christmas. Surprisingly though if the strike were to be held at any other time a lot more of you, 50.6% to be precise, would get on board (or not as the case may be!) with the cabin crew.

As somone who is flying over the Christmas period, I would be horrified if someone told me I couldn’t escape to the sun. I’ve been waiting all year (well since the end of May anyway) to work on my tan and sip cocktails on a sun lounger and it would be detrimental to my health, and my colleagues as they would be the ones who have to live with my rants in January, if I couldn’t get away.  So, I hope that everyone gets to where they want to be this Christmas, I’ll be thinking of everyone while I soak up the sun in Florida.

Alex