Charities face tough battles ahead on campaigning with many MPs – particularly Conservatives – new research shows. Two thirds of Conservative MPs think that the charity sector is too political, and one third think that charities should not campaign in Parliament at all.

Anna Wates explores polling techniques, and why prediction can sometimes be a fool’s game

Parliamentary campaign emails allow charities to harness the power of constituents to gain valuable support from MPs, but crowded inboxes make it difficult to make an impression.

Opinion pollsters don’t have an enviable job. We regularly work with surveys and we know that it’s often an inexact science. Trying to capture how the public feel about a subject is not an easy thing and depends on finding the right people to talk to, asking them the right question, in the right setting and at the right time.