UK: AHEAD IN THE POLLS - POLLSTERS LOOK FORWARD TO GENERAL ELECTION.

Britain's pollsters are an odd breed and certainly not a representative sample of the population. But Daniel Butler's findings reveal a surprising degree of similarity in their attitudes and views as a general election looms.

As he sits in his wood-panelled office overlooking St James Park, Bob Worcester, chairman and founder of MORI, tries not to look smug. A general election is looming and he can feel his media desirability rising already. During the campaign itself, the nation will be hypnotised by his and his fellow pollsters' findings. Politicians will hang on every statistic he can produce and in the City fortunes will be made and lost on rumours about his work.

All the while he will make money and MORI's name will be splashed across every front page in the county. To hard-pressed ad-men and PR executives across the country, it must seem like the proverbial golden goose.