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Category: Cuts

Will YouGov ease Tory jitters over child benefit?

Will YouGov ease Tory jitters over child benefit?

The Sun How much can we read into the figures? As reported overnight the Sun is carrying YouGov poll figures this morning which suggest that the George Osborne plan to take child benefit away from those paying higher rates of tax is actually pretty popular. It’s hard to argue with an 83%-15% split. But how much can you read into findings like this? For generally pollsters find that people are happy to support tax increases when it doesn’t affect them….

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Should the Mail front page be worrying Downing Street?

Should the Mail front page be worrying Downing Street?

Daily Mail Was it rushed though to wrong-foot EdM? The Mail’s front page this morning sets out the real challenge for the government over yesterday’s shock announcement by George Osborne on the withdrawal of child benefit from those who are paying tax at the higher rate. For as is well summed up in the headline it seems to be unfair and to penalise stay-at-home mums. The paper sums it up succinctly: “It will mean that any couple with one earner…

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Can the coalition go on winning the economy argument?

Can the coalition go on winning the economy argument?

Most trusted on the economy All voters % CON % LAB % LD % Coalition led by Cameron & Clegg 50 95 11 69 Labour led by Ed Miliband 31 2 77 18 Neither 8 1 2 4 Don’t know 11 2 9 9 Could the child benefit move undermine public support? The above data is extracted from last Friday’s ICM poll for the Guardian and shows responses to the question “Who would you say you trusted more to take…

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Was the Populus cuts question too ambitous?

Was the Populus cuts question too ambitous?

How meaningful are responses to very long questions? We’ve now got the precise wording of the polling question that was read out over the telephone to 751 interviewees in this week’s Populus poll from the Times and which has been seized upon as evidence that there is little backing amongst the public for the government’s core strategy. “Which of the following statements do you most agree with? Britain has a severe debt crisis and this government thinks the country’s budget…

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Could Britain and France really share their carrier fleets?

Could Britain and France really share their carrier fleets?

The Sun Is this taking defence cuts too far? The main news on the front page of the Times which is covered at length in its sister paper the Sun, is about a plan for Britain and France to “share” their aircraft carriers as part of massive economy measure. The idea is that Britain would scrap or downgrade one of the two replacement carriers which are already under construction at a cost of more than £5bn and that that one…

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