Boris more popular than Dave

PoliticsHome.com has just launched its daily opinion tracker of 5,000 UK voters.  The tracker provided the main splash in this weekend's Observer.

Its latest finding is that more voters are impressed with Boris Johnson than David Cameron.  The advantage is small.  3% more voters have a positive impression of Boris than have a negative impression.  David Cameron's advantage is +1%.  The graph on the right summarises the men's changing ratings: Cameron's rating is the blue line, Boris' line is green.  As well as this being a honeymoon period for London's new Mayor, it's also true that voters probably judge the two men according to different standards.

Boris confirmed yesterday that he would be scrapping Ken Livingstone's Londoner - a taxpayer-funded propaganda sheet that has rightly annoyed Conservatives for many years.  Not publishing it will save £2.9m.  £1m of the savings will be used to plant 10,000 'street trees' - particularly in London's least green, poorer communities.  Boris commented:

“There was little commitment of resources from Ken Livingstone to reverse the trend of decline in the number of street trees. I am taking immediate action to reverse this short-sighted decision.  In the last few years a third of boroughs have seen a decline in the number of street trees. Many London streets, particularly in deprived areas, have no street trees at all.  I believe that as many areas as possible should enjoy the many advantages that street trees bring. So today I have taken the decision to cut unnecessary funding of the Mayor’s personal publicity budget to plant 10,000 street trees by the end of my first term.  Trees improve the street environment in which Londoners live and work so I will do all I can to save the trees we have and campaign for more trees to protect London’s open spaces.”

City Hall has also announced that Kulveer Ranger will be Boris Johnson's transport adviser.  The Tory A-lister was, according to a press statement, "the lead delivery manager of the Oystercard for London in 2003 and led commercial negotiations on behalf of the Secretary of State supporting the King’s Cross redevelopment."

11.45am: Interesting post from the essential Phil Taylor on the trees policy. The Tory Ealing councillor asks if Boris is "subsidising feckless Labour boroughs that refuse to spend out on street trees whilst careful boroughs that provide street trees will not benefit?"

Comments

[Tom FD]

This was my favourite policy announcement in years, and completely trumped every environmental policy ever conceived by Ken or the Greens, making both look like idiots. Replace the dead trees with living trees. Marvellous.

[Jennifer Wells]

Congratulations to Kulveer. A really nice guy.

[YMT]

Good news, its going to take a lot of elbow grease for Boris to rectify many of the problems nuLabour has created in London, trees are a start. I wonder what plans he is going to introduce from his meeting with Bloomberg? Actively (re)creating good social and natural environments can only improve peoples lives, health, productivity, crime reduction etc all should see benefits with improvement.

[Sammy Finn]

Boris should remain an MP. we'll then have an obvious alternative leader if (god forbid) David Cameron falls under a bus.

[Sam S]

You don't seriously think that Boris would be a good PM and leader do you...?

The world is going made! He had enough trouble as Shadow Higher Education Minister.

[Chad Noble]

A new power base is born. Keep it up Boris.

[Baskerville]

With all due respect to a new website trying to generate headlines and garner 'hits', this is a truly meaningless piece of research.
Even if we cared, and even if we could sensibly compare a Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition apple with a Mayor of London orange, the poll gives us no information on 'don't knows'.
So, Boris could have the approval of 12% and the disapproval of 9%, with 79% 'don't know', whereas David could have the approval of 50% and the disapproval 49% with only 1% 'don't know'. Does this make Boris 'more popular' than David? The simple answer is we 'don't know' and this 'research', as published, adds nothing to our knowledge on the subject.
WRT Phil Taylor's concerns. If each Boris Tree were appropriately labelled, the good citizens of 'feckless boroughs' would be clear who was making a difference to their environment.
Suggestions for the label?
A Boris Tree
Boris Tree No: 9456

[Cleethorpes Rock]

Super policy, but wouldn't it be better to put the trees in the Tory areas, as:

a) They'll be appreciated more and will be less likely to get vandalised
b) People in Tory areas pay the lion's share of the tax funding the project

[Norm Brainer]

yeah, Cleethorpes Rock, the tory areas pay more for the roads as they use more fuel and pay more road tax, so maybe we should remove all the roads in non-tory areas too?

[Dominic]

wrg to the comments from Cleethorpes Rock...

Come on, whether you're serious or not (and I hope you're making a "joke") that sort of comment really doesn't help give the Tories a good name.

We voted Ken out because he was the sort of divisive politician who used government funding for party political aims. The last thing we want is for Boris to do the same thing.

This £2.9m belongs to every householder in London. It should be spread across all the boroughs in London - including (but not entirely focussed on) those outlying boroughs that voted Boris in.

[Cleethorpes Rock]

I love the way tongue-in-cheek remarks get people going on here. Of course I was joking, but suppose I should be careful as we all know Labour in London are prone to making something out of nothing (see Boris smears passim)

I think by abolishing the biggest piece of propaganda put out by Ken (The Londoner), Boris has shown his intentions not to go in for the politicking Ken did, which we're all happy about!

[Editor]

Baskerville (1226):

Answering your point, here are the numbers that produce the net figures:

Cameron 33% positive, 32% negative
Boris 31% positive, 28% negative

[Norm Brainer]

whoops.. sorry for taking you seriously, just I expect there are people that think like that as it is the sort of thing that Ken did - and now they'd want payback, which, of course only perpetuates the rot.

[Baskerville]

Thanks, Editor, those figures make the research more credible.

[David Gold]

Delighted for Kulveer and delighted that London will have more street trees. The planting of trees is of far greater benefit than anything the Londoner rag ever did.