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Another pollster has Johnson dropping sharply in its leader ratings while Starmer takes a net lead

Another pollster has Johnson dropping sharply in its leader ratings while Starmer takes a net lead

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Can Boris get back to where he was? Ipsos-MORI, Britain’s oldest polling firm, has just produced its latest leader ratings and the trend is very similar to what we’ve seen from other pollsters. Johnson has taken a hit while Starmer has continued to rise. Clearly the PM’s lack of action over the Cummings lockdown road trip affair continues to grate with voters. With Starmer there are fewer don’t knows which are splitting in favour or the new LAB leader. This…

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In praise of Boris – the cycling enthusiast

In praise of Boris – the cycling enthusiast

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Getting people on bikes could be his and the pandemic’s great legacy What might be looked back on as one of the biggest decisions when the lockdown was being introduced in March was to include bike shops amongst the retailers that were specifically allowed to remain open. Quite what role Boris had in that move I don’t know but it is hard to see that exception being made if someone else had been elected Tory leader last year. The impact…

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A big challenge for Johnson and his minsters is that their rating on how they’re handling COVID 19 has now gone negative

A big challenge for Johnson and his minsters is that their rating on how they’re handling COVID 19 has now gone negative

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Several pollsters are asking regular questions on how the public think the government is handling the pandemic. YouGov and Opinium have published the most data on this and I have chosen the former for my chart. The main trend is broadly the same which ever pollster you use and whatever the question format – a falling off of confidence in the government’s approach. It should be noted that with YouGov it went into negative territory before we got news of…

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Why Johnson can take little comfort from the Tory voting intention poll leads

Why Johnson can take little comfort from the Tory voting intention poll leads

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He’s being smashed by Starmer in the leader ratings The latest weekly poll from Opinium the the Observer had the Conservatives with a 4% lead while at the same time the same poll gave Starmer net 30% lead over Johnson in its approval question. On the face of it these two statements about this poll simply don’t make sense. The head of a party in the lead on voting would not, surely, have approval numbers that were so far off….

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However you view these poll numbers it doesn’t look good for Cummings or the PM

However you view these poll numbers it doesn’t look good for Cummings or the PM

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The above chart is based on the data from yesterday’s Opinium poll for the Observer and seeks to break down in visual form how different segments are viewing what Cummings did at the height of the lockdown. As can be seen the government’s argument that this was justified is not being received well across the key segments there. Even GE2019 CON voters have failed, admittedly by a small margin, to give it their blessing. The split I find most striking…

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Denying Bercow a peerage shows what a petty mean minded little man Johnson really is

Denying Bercow a peerage shows what a petty mean minded little man Johnson really is

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Going against the long-standing tradition is a mistake It is being reported that Johnson has blocked the traditional move for former Speakers of the House of Commons to be elevated to the peerage once they have stepped down. In doing so Bercow is denied an honour that has gone to Speakers for decades if not centuries. This is one of those traditional parts of the unwritten constitution. By becoming Speaker an MP has to give up their party links and…

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Lockdown is over. What next?

Lockdown is over. What next?

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Complex and odd rules plus the Cummings effect mean the public will decide for themselves what to do about Covid-19 Winston Churchill did not go out of his way to sell sunny optimism. During the 1930s, much to the irritation of his own party, he led the campaign to rearm the country in the face of a Nazi threat he considered – and said – was much greater and more imminent than the government would allow. On becoming prime minister,…

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