Back in the eighties the SDP joined up with the Liberal Party to become a not insignificant third force in politics. In many constituencies the votes of the centre and the left were split between Labour and Lib-SDP. This enabled Tory candidates to sneak in front at the winning post -- the last thing wanted by either Labour or Lib-SDP supporters. After this happened a few times Lib-SDP leaders and followers got smart. In whichever constituency where the Labour candidate was strong, Lib-SDP withdrew their candidate or persuaded their supporters to vote Labour, and vice versa -- thus Tactical Voting was born. This was possible only thanks to opinion polls publicized in every constituencies.
In the SCD phone poll however, all voters vote blind. The judges' scores are known to be no guide whatsoever to voters' preferences. As each person picks up the phone she or he has no idea how that vote would affect the final shape of this eleven-sided jigsaw, including unintentional side-effects such as evicting Gabby.
For their own reasons the BBC has never seen fit to reveal the total votes cast each week for the candidates. BBC would not even admit the final judges-plus-votes aggregate score for each candidate, with Brucie claiming the roll call was "in no particular order".
If as Craig and Len insisted, the public have a duty to vote soberly and responsibly, do the public not have a right to know the votes cast from week to week? If for example voting returns do demonstrate that a mid-table ranking genuinely leads to voter neglect then eviction, then supporters will make a point of voting defensively for their mid-table candidates.
In the SCD phone poll however, all voters vote blind. The judges' scores are known to be no guide whatsoever to voters' preferences. As each person picks up the phone she or he has no idea how that vote would affect the final shape of this eleven-sided jigsaw, including unintentional side-effects such as evicting Gabby.
For their own reasons the BBC has never seen fit to reveal the total votes cast each week for the candidates. BBC would not even admit the final judges-plus-votes aggregate score for each candidate, with Brucie claiming the roll call was "in no particular order".
If as Craig and Len insisted, the public have a duty to vote soberly and responsibly, do the public not have a right to know the votes cast from week to week? If for example voting returns do demonstrate that a mid-table ranking genuinely leads to voter neglect then eviction, then supporters will make a point of voting defensively for their mid-table candidates.
