This week’s YouGov leader approval ratings
David Cameron
| David Cameron “doing well/badly†(YouGov) | All (last week) | CON voters | LAB voters | LD voters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Well | 49 (+2) | 95 | 13 | 78 |
| Badly | 44 (-1) | 4 | 84 | 18 |
Ed Miliband
| Ed Miliband “doing well/badly†(YouGov) | All (last week) | CON voters | LAB voters | LD voters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Well | 30 (+2) | 17 | 63 | 26 |
| Badly | 44 (+7) | 62 | 20 | 42 |
Nick Clegg
| Nick Clegg “doing well/badly†(YouGov) | All (last week) | CON voters | LAB voters | LD voters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Well | 33 (+1) | 67 | 7 | 76 |
| Badly | 56 (nc) | 24 | 87 | 18 |
In the US and many other countries the established way of “taking the political temperature” is by looking at the regular leader approval ratings.
That practice has never really got off the ground in the UK even though in 1992 the approval trends were a much better pointer to the election outcome than the standard voting intention numbers which got it badly wrong.
In the run-up to the general election I began featuring this data at regular intervals which is what I now plan to do on PB. For the coalition creates a particular challenge for the pollsters because it is a unique political situation and the more ways of looking at it the better.
Could it be that the very strong support by LD voters for David Cameron and the strongish support the other way by Tory voters for Nick Clegg might provide an indicator of CON>LD and LD>CON tactical voting?
There’s some good past trend data on the YouGov site here.