YouGov leadership ratings “…doing well/badly?†All % CON voters LAB voters LD voters David Cameron Well 47(+4) 96 9 69 Badly 47(-3) 3 87 28 Ed Miliband Well 32 (-2) 14 67 22 Badly 47(nc) 71 20 53 Nick Clegg Well 28(+3) 58 5 68 Badly 63(-3) 34 92 29 But Edward drops a couple of notches The first leadership ratings numbers since the budget are out from…
Will today advance the anti-cuts cause? I’m sure I’m not the only one to have been shocked by some of the images that have been coming out of London’s West End in the past few hours. The real problem all those involved face, those on the official march and those in the breakaway groups, is that polling this week underlines that the need for cuts is well understood and supported by the majority. There might be opposition to specific measures…
Who does it make life harder for – government or opposition? It would be easy to see the admission made by George Osborne in this week’s Budget that the anticipated growth rate for 2011 had fallen and that the expected levels of borrowing had gone up as bad news for the government. And in the short term, it is. It means Labour have the opportunity to claim that the government’s policies aren’t working (whether or not they are isn’t the…
Which is most to blame for the cuts? (YouGov) CON-LD coalition % Last Labour government % Both of them % Neither % Don’t know % 25 March 2011 25 42 21 6 5 21 March 2011 23 38 26 7 5 07 March 2011 27 40 22 6 5 21 February 2011 25 41 24 5 5 07 February 2011 25 38 26 6 5 25 January 2011 26 40 24 5 6 20/01/2011 Ed Balls becomes shadow chancellor …
The Sun Labour’s ratings on the economy slip back The first voting intention survey since the budget, the Sun/YouGov had CON 37: LAB 41: LD 11 – the best figure for the blues s since February and equalling the best for the yellows. The gap was down to four points. In other questions there’s also good news for both Osborne personally and the coalition government generally. The survey found that 38% of those sampled trust the coalition on the economy,…
But is the biggest lesson the fall of the Lisbon government? George Osborne won’t be too unhappy when he flicks though the front pages this morning – though the reception to his plans from even friendly quarters is perhaps not as enthusiastic as might have hoped. The challenge, of course, is the context in which the government is operating. It’s a lot easier to get good headlines when the economy is going well and there’s money to hand out. James…
Will today’s measures help cut-back the Labour lead? In the end almost everything that was predicted for the budget actually came about and what we saw was a package of measures designed to meet one objective – to make the the government’s cut-backs more acceptable. Osborne focussed his big measure, the one pence cut in the price of a litre of petrol, on one of the costs that I’ve long argued is super-sensitive politically. For many the car is essential…