“Stick with first past the post or stick with AV?†(YouGov) All voters CON% LAB % LD% Switch to AV 32 24 32 70 Stick with first past the post 43 62 49 14 Wouldn’t vote/don’t know 25 14 19 16 “Blame for the spending cuts?†(YouGov) All voters CON% LAB % LD% CON-LD coalition 20 1 52 5 Last Labour government 46 91 7 69 Both 22 5 25 15 Neither 7 2 13 6 Lots of polling has…
“Support or oppose cap on housing benefit†(YouGov) All sampled CON voters % LAB voters% LD voters % Support 72 94 52 78 Oppose 16 3 35 11 Don’t know 13 3 14 11 Should the red team and Boris re-think their strategies? After a week when domestic politics has been almost taken over by the row on housing benefit there is some polling on the issue – by YouGov for today’s Sunday Times. The findings with cross tabs on…
Is outspokenness an underrated quality? Boris Johnson is probably not the most popular figure with Conservative high command just at the moment given his comments about the proposed Housing Benefit changes. Not only has he very publicly gone against the party line but he used pretty powerful language in doing so. It’s not the first time Boris has had to moderate or clarify the colourful language he’s prone to employing. In the past, he’s managed to stir up controversies with…
Populus poll All voters Public Sector Private Sector Retired voters CON 37 23 45 44 LAB 38 50 30 37 LD 15 17 15 10 Do people vote according to their current situation? The above table has been produced from data from this week’s Populus poll for the Times and shows the voting intention shares broken down in terms of respondents employment sector or whether or not they are retired. As can be seen there’s a massive gap between private…
Should EdM be thinking of the wider audience? In his summary of today’s PMQ encounter between Cameron and Ed Miliband the Indy on Sunday’s John Rentoul concluded:- “..Good tactics on Miliband’s part; poor strategy. He succeeded in winding up Iain Duncan Smith, Work and Pensions Secretary, standing at the end opposite the Speaker’s chair, shouting, “Absolute rubbish!†He succeeded in dividing the left-wing of the Liberal Democrats from their colleagues on the Government benches. (Miliband had a good line about…
What are the dangers in getting tough? Maybe I’m being unfair to suggest that there is perhaps nothing that pleases Daily Mail readers more than reading headlines like this morning’s about the efforts to tighten up on who should receive the £95-a-week Employment and Support Allowance – which is replacing incapacity benefit. Phrases like “weeding out the work-shy” are powerful and resonate, surely with the audience. The Mail highlights new statistics showing that 640,000 out of about 840,000 who applied…
What should Labour say about the GDP figures? It’s perhaps worth reminding ourselves that for thirteen of the last thirteen and a half years Labour has been in government. Being in opposition requires a totally different skill-set and the party is only just learning how to make best use of the limited number of communications opportunities that are available to it. This morning was a particular challenge. The Q3 GDP increase at 0.8% was far higher than most had expected…
“Who’s to blame for the cuts?” (YouGov) All voters CON voters LAB voters LD voters CON-LD coalition 17 1 39 5 Last Labour government 47 93 6 65 Both 20 3 29 13 Neither 11 2 24 11 “Last Labour government bears most responsibility” (ComRes) All voters CON at GE LAB at GE LD at GE Agree 59 87 32 56 Disagree 36 12 63 40 Will EdM’s party floundering on the “blame” issue? As I have been arguing during…