Ethical Matters:
Polling UnPacked – The History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls

Mark Pack gives you the full story, from the first rudimentary polls in the nineteenth century, through attempts by politicians to ban polling in the twentieth century, to the very latest techniques and controversies from the last few years. In equal parts enlightening and hilarious, his book, Polling Unpacked needs no prior knowledge of polling or statistics to understand. Hardened pollsters will find much to enjoy, from how polling has been used to help plan military invasions to why an exhausted interviewer was accidentally instrumental in inventing exit polls.

Polling UnPacked shows you which opinion polls to trust, which to ignore and which, frankly, to laugh at. It will change the way you see political coverage forever. It also features alien invasions, Sherlock Holmes, a politician disguised as a chicken farmer, the slaying of popular polling myths and more.

Mark has extensive experience of conducting, commissioning and analysing political opinion polls, and his previous books include Bad News: What the Headlines Don’t Tell Us (2020) and 101 Ways To Win An Election (2021).