Public increasingly unhappy with Labour's economic performance

The Tory lead is down very slightly in today's YouGov survey for The Daily Telegraph but the underlying numbers are much more worrying for the Government:

• 52% believe that Labour's handling of the impending economic downturn has been "poor" or "awful".
• 61% give the same verdict on Labour's handling of Northern Rock.

The Tories are also building tortoise-like leads over Labour on two of the three elements of the iron triangle of political success: Cameron leads Brown by 31% to 27% on the best leader for Britain and the Conservatives lead Labour by 34% to 30% on economic management.

Earlier this week this website highlighted the tortoise-versus-hares-debate amongst Tory strategists.  The erosion of Labour's economic standing may encourage the tortoises' wait-for-Labour-to-collapse tactics.  The Telegraph, however, makes it clear this morning that it wants more hare-like boldness from the Conservatives:

"In those areas where he has enunciated bold policies - inheritance tax, immigration, welfare reform - the public has responded warmly. But when it comes to education, for example, the Tories' sensible principle of expanding consumer choice has yet to produce proposals striking enough to (say) spark off a conversation in the pub."

In her column for the New Statesman Tara Hamilton-Miller seems to side with the tortoises when it comes to boldness on economic policy:

"The prediction is that interest rates will fall, so the Tories will be cautious. If interest rates are cut to below 4 per cent months before an election, the Tories would have to be prepared for the favourable reaction that would bring."

ON CONSERVATIVEHOME ON MONDAY: A PORTFOLIO-BY-PORTFOLIO GUIDE TO WHERE THE BOLDEST AND MOST TORTOISE-LIKE POLICY MAKING IS TAKING PLACE.

Comments

[David Belchamber]

To be really happy, the tories should go up 3 points and Labour should drop three.

That requires energetic opposition of the government's record on competence and the roll-out of more tory policies of the sort that Brown is unlikely to pinch e.g the restoration of the Assisted Places Scheme, so that bright children from poor families could attend independent schools, devolving government from the centre to local communities, restoring the independence of the civil service etc.

I believe we should remind people that the conservative party aims to conserve what is good in society and reform that which is bad. After 10 years of Nulab there is a lot to do!

[Richard Woolley]

The conservatives should be 15 points ahead of Labour at the moment at least and Brown should have the poll ratings of Michael Foot. Perhaps if Cameron offered to slash income tax and public borrowing the conservative's standing would improve significantly. I find this talk of spliting the proceeds of growth between higher spending and lower taxes very uninspiring.

[Tony Makara]

Now that the resignation of Peter Hain will give Gordon Brown the opportunity to copy Conservative plans for welfare reform, it just shows how this Labour government is devoid of any original thinking and is even prepared to copy the dead-end punitive reforms because it, like the Conservative and Liberal parties, has no policy for job creation.

Politicians of all parties need to understand that the only way to take people off benefits completely is to create work. The New Deal and the proposed Workfare will not do that. Giving people something to do while on benefits is not solving the problem, it is just a public relations exercize to make political parties appear as if they are doing something about unemployment when they are not.

Jobs can only be created by making the economic environment favourable to the people who create jobs, that is British business. That means protecting the domestic market from being overrun by cheap imports, giving business an opportunity to operate a very low levels of taxation and new business starting up should be exempt from taxation althogether for a while and allowed to grow and build the business infrastructure needed to create jobs. The minimum wage should be abolished and regulation governing working hours should also be abolished. Unless we end import dependency we will never end welfare dependency. Take a look around you and see how many imported items could have been made in Britain, why give jobs to foreigners when our own people could have those jobs? why give profits to foreigners when our own entrepreneurs could be using those profits to invest and develop our own economy?

Unless the British economy is restructured along these lines unemployment will never go away. The problem we have is that politicians like Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg are so blinded by the ideology of open-trade that they cannot see the negative consequences of such open-trade. If the Conservative party comes to power and follows the path of completely open-trade I guarantee that unemployment will always remain at one million plus.