The 5-6 pence drop in the price of a litre could be contributing to the slightly better CON position
A factor that might be helping the coalition and particularly the Tories is the price drop we’ve seen in the cost of petrol and diesel at the pumps.
My car’s a diesel and a couple of weeks ago I paid £1.459 for litre. That’s now dropped to below £1.40 and the cost of a full tank was down about £3.
This is much more important outside the big conurbations because the car plays a much bigger part for most people in getting about.
And, as was being pointed out endlessly ahead of GE2010 there are many more marginals outside the big population centres than within them. Look down the list of CON LAB battlegrounds and so many are in small to medium sized English towns and their hinterlands.
If you rely on the car to get you to work then these savings can be very important.
Maybe that’s helping the blues in the polls?
Mike Smithson
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