Sky high ratings for David Cameron among Tory grassroots

The latest ConHome survey of members finds sky-high ratings for David Cameron:

• 93% of 1,470 members questioned were satisfied with the Tory leader;
• 97% think he is likely to be PM after the next election;
• 87% agree that the Conservative Party is on the right track.

Comments

[Serf]

Wow, thats impressive.

I bet the BBC and the Guardian don't quote from that. Gordon Brown robably won't use it at PMQs either.

[John Broughton]

Tim

I did not make a note of the actual questions asked BUT I was "satisfied" with DC's leadership subject to qualification.

It was not possible (so far as I can recall) to make those qualifications among which are:-

Committment to a smaller state,
Abandoning adherence to labour's spending plans and
Absolute committment to a referendum on the Constitution/Lisbon Treaty.

An example of asking the question in order to elicit the right answer.

[Ray]

That's a pretty standard political survey question John, and his 'satisfaction rating' among supporters have increased considerably over the last 12 months. He is obviously doing something right.

[Norm Brainer]

Committment to a smaller state,
Abandoning adherence to labour's spending plans and
Absolute committment to a referendum on the Constitution/Lisbon Treaty.

Who in the party wouldn't want those things?.. he'd be in trouble if those weren't his aims.

[Doug]

I'll add that I am very happy with David Cameron. But also IMO ConHome for the most part have contributors who regularly write about how useless David Cameron is. How about you try a little pandering to the ConHome readership, who are clearly with Cameron most of the time, and get some new contributors who write in support Cameron.

[Alex Swanson]

Who in the party wouldn't want those things?

The entire Opposition Front Bench, for a start, apparently.

[Ali T]

Great set of results for DC, but what would be interesting is to see the rating for other members of his front bench team, exspecially as there continues to be talk of a reshuffle.

On a slightly different note I am always amused by those who use this site to bash our leader and the party and who are clearly Labour trolls. It only goes to show that when the members are asked for their veiws all the vile which these people pour forth has no effect.

[Jane Gould]

So I should hope. we - the modernisers and Cameron's real supporters - took enough stick from our "traditional" colleagues until the early part of this year.

[Steve]

Don't be divisive Jane. We're all on the same side!

[wonderfulforhisage]

Mark my words, there will be tears. Don't forget he's the 'Heir to Blair'.

That's bad enough but he hasn't got anybody remotely as good at pulling his strings as Mandy and/or Alastair.

[Steve]

Same to you wonderfulforhisage!

[John T]

If Dave calms down on transforming the Tory Party into a half-baked mash of New Labour I will continue to support him.

His modernising agenda has worked and few now regard to party as out of touch and stuffy now compared to an exhausted Labour, those who do, will never vote for us. No more A-lists, no more over-enthusiastic pro-women discrimination and slowly but surely let go of the green agenda, no one outside London and the cities gives a hoot about it. If he does this, we will go down as a great Tory leader. If not, he will go down as the man who dismantled everything we're supposed to stand for., i.e. Merit.

[Saxred]

Great results - I wonder if these are based on the poll lead or a genuine engagment with his New Conservatives Agenda. Will this all turn sour if we get into government and find DC as PC as TB?

[eugene]

A Conservative prayer...

Please Lord, allow Labour to win well in Glasgow East on Thursday so Gordon keeps his job and so allow us to continue doing well.

Amen

[Sally Roberts]

And amen to that too eugene!

[Mr Angry]

Cameron's ratings amongst the grassroots are improving because he has, seemingly, largely finished with his brand decontamination exercise and has started to sound like a conservative in various policy areas. If that continues, and we do not suddenly find ourselves New Labour Lite again, then he will continue to do well with the Party at large.

[Alexander Lovatt]

I agree that DC deserves his grass roots ratings. He is also doing well on the national stage.

As a long standing campaigner for the Conservatives and a libertarian I would now like to hear a bit more about rolling back state interference in people's lives.

[Ay up]

This is the value of these polls, they may reflect hte bad times but they also refelct the good!

[Anne Allan]

Alexander Lovatt at 11.10 - hear, hear and a thousand times hear, hear with knobs on.
That is why David Davis must be brought back. He appears to be the one of the few top Tories who is actually aware of the dangers of our Big Brother society: there are now 1000 laws that allow officials to invade our homes.
The latest bunch of prodnoses are entitled to bust in and check our pot plants - and we're not talking cannabis. Not so much Keep the Aspidistra Flying as Lock Up Your African Violets.

[Victor Bowman]

I am a committed and long time supporter of the Conservative Party but I am fed up with hearing how well the Party is performing. The truth of the matter is that true to form Labour are once again wrecking the country and have been allowed to by the abysmal performance as an opposition over the last 8 years until Blaire resigned. Our current leader could be a monkey and still be in front of New Labour in the polls. When Cameron and his shadow cabinet return to sound Conservative principles I will be a great deal happier.

[Sammy Finn]

I am satisfied with his opinion poll lead but not his economic policy.

[Jake]

Committment to a smaller state,
Abandoning adherence to labour's spending plans and
Absolute committment to a referendum on the Constitution/Lisbon Treaty.

Great.

Can we have a committment to a referendum in England for an English Parliament within the Union? Just like Scotland had.

It would extend the reach of positive interest in Tory policies well beyond the normal areas and be enormously popular.

As it is this present poll lead could turn out to be fragile and something else is needed to cement it into place.

[London Tory]

Cameron's success in decontaminating our brand can be seen in every new opinion poll.
The Angry brigade of Basil Fawlty's who yearn for this country to return to the 1950s are welcome to follow Bob Spink's example, and join UKIP.

[Opinicus]

Got to agree with Sammy Finn

Peer pressure and the herd instinct are what got this party to agree to Appeasement and into the Common Market. Powerful but stupid.

It looks like he's going to win but what's he going to do once he's won? It becomes more important as it becomes more certain.

[Dale]

Why are there so many english natioonalists here as of late?

[Mara MacSeoinin]

I am glad that the Leader of the Opposition is receiving such strong support. However, I hope that he continues to merit such support, and makes a firm commitment to putting in place those policies he has suggested are at the top of his agenda, including:
i. abolition of ID cards
ii. complete abolition of the Lisbon Treaty
iii. abolition of the CAP and, potentially, opting out of the EU
iv. decriminalising the poor
v. the reinstatement of proper 'British' values: responsibility and respect
vi. protecting and saving Green Belt land and areas of outstanding natural beauty
vii. decentralisation of the State
viii. overhaul of the educational system (which should include, as a matter of principle, power being placed in the hands of the teachers, rather than the children)
ix. overhaul of the NHS
x. Strong UK border-force
xi. Much stricter immigration controls

A commitment to ending the (illegal) wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, forging a good relationship with Russia, backing off from Iran, creation of a world parliament (rather than the enfeebled UN), complete annihilation of so-called 'Political Correctness' and 'positive discrimination', reduction/cessation of large payments to Scotland/Northern Ireland which are supposed to be devolved, partial lifting of the smoking ban and also the hunting ban (only a Liberal could think that it is kind to shoot foxes) would be helpful. For a start.

[Patrick Ratnaraja]

Who said Cameron is English? Camerons and the Browns are from the same place in Scotland. The Camreons moved out of Scotland earlier. Financially they always have been better off than the Browns.

I have been a member for a long time. I became a more active member only after DC was elected as our leader. He certainly has a vision for this Country and the Conservative party. Unfortunately People around Him are not fully supportive.

[Saltmaker]

Our current leader could be a monkey and still be in front of New Labour in the polls. When Cameron and his shadow cabinet return to sound Conservative principles I will be a great deal happier.

If you were right, Lib Dems would be benefiting from Labour’s collapse too. But you’re not right. We’re taking it out of both Labour and Lib Dems because neither of them has got an answer to David Cameron. First he panicked them both into trying new leaders – which has just taken them both into deeper trouble. Now he’s panicked them into huge policy U-turns, Purnell becoming the benefits right-winger and Clegg becoming the tax cutter.

After so many years of bad news it becomes psychologically challenging to accept good news, but accept it we should, and enjoy it we should. Be happy, we are doing well!

[West London Tory]

" but surely let go of the green agenda, no one outside London and the cities gives a hoot about it."

What a stupid comment.

[Norm Brainer]

What a stupid comment.
Yeah, people in the cities don't give a hoot about it either.

Environmental cleanliness and efficiency is a good cause, but "green" measures just stink of socialism.

My hoping is that Cameron is saying things about green measures and matching spending as he's having to play by the rules of labour's game in order to gain power... and then he can implement sensible policies that people would misunderstand now.

[Alex Swanson]

What a stupid comment.

If you disagree with someone, say why. This is just argument-by-abuse.

[Stefan]

As ever, I'd love to hear the views of the 3% and 7%!

almost as much as I'd like to hear from the Labour supporters who still think Brown is doing a good job...

[Ken Stevens]

Dale
"Why are there so many english nationalists here as of late?"

Why not?

Is there something inherently wrong with being a unionist who wants democratic parity with the rest of the Union and feels that this should be a feature of Tory policy?

[Alex Swanson]

As ever, I'd love to hear the views of the 3% and 7%!

Well I for one post here regularly. Mind you, I'm no longer a member.

I suspect that what this survey shows is not satisfaction with Cameron amongst Conservative supporters, more that anybody likely to be unhappy has now left the party, and all that remains is a loyal rump.

[David Sergeant]

"The truth of the matter is that true to form Labour are once again wrecking the country and have been allowed to by the abysmal performance as an opposition over the last 8 years until Blaire resigned. When Cameron and his shadow cabinet return to sound Conservative principles I will be a great deal happier."

The first part is right. Blair and Labour did so well because of the abysmal performance of Tory leaders until Cameron turned up. (Not just party leaders.) Trouble is they were mostly expounding "sound Conservative principles" and, hence, handed the country to Labour.

I really do wish people going on about "sound Conservative principles" should realise that they are not just unpopular with voters, the logic used to justify them is so fatuous any other party member would have no trouble scoring vast numbers of points off them.

[Jake]

Incredible comment from Dale
"Why are there so many english nationalists here as of late?"

Just goes to show that some of the party are still living in the British dark ages.

Dale, it appears you haven't noticed the United Kingdom, like Belgium, is in the grip of a major, perhaps terminal, constitutional problem. But then I suppose there were many people in Roman north Africa in 410 AD who were able to ignore the fact that Alaric had just sacked Rome.

Its like this Dale, the marriage of England and Scotland that is the United Kingdom is now severely distorted and unfair. Scotland has her own parliament but England has none and is dictated to by the British state. There is an increasing feeling in England of us being discriminated against by the British. This is because it is so.
This is a situation that is only going to get worse not better.

If Mr Cameron wins the forthcoming general election he might well want to dwell on things economic, educational, defence etc
but he is likely to get hit straight away with a constitutional crisis for which he, like you, shows no sign whatsoever of being prepared for.

Do try to keep up ,Dale old thing.

[David Sergeant]

"he is likely to get hit straight away with a constitutional crisis for which he, like you, shows no sign whatsoever of being prepared for."

So Ken Clark hasn't been looking at the issue for nearly a year at Cameron's request. I am not going to bother to say " do keep up Jake old thing" because Jake knows his attack on Cameron is, like so many, plain rubbish.

Cameron must be doing a lot right for so many people trying to critisize him being reduced to pretending he didn't say something that he did say or saying he said something he didn't. Please on ConHome at least can we relate, more or less, to the facts.

[Patricia]

David Cameron should be extraordinarily grateful to Gordon Brown for giving him such a lead in the polls!

Given a Labour leader of merit, David Cameron would find that he had to be far less glib to command a lead and those behind him should remember this.

[Jake]

David , actually Mr Clarke has been looking at the issue for about two and a half years and has produced a report which is an unjust exercise in obfuscation, delay and dodging the point.

Mr Cameron is doing quite a lot right and

-unlike some on this site who have delivered only blanket condemnation-

I fully understand that he has to tread extremely carefully as he paints the Conservative picture while skirting the potholes on the road to power. It aint easy and he performed very well.

On the one point of England and constitutional reform though, he has yet to address the issue. An issue which is essentially very simple and yet which some Conservatives appear compelled to make complicated.

It is that the nation of England has yet to be offered a parliament and self government in the same way as the Conservatives approve for Scotland and Wales.
England's size and arguments about layers of politicians and cost, if they exist, are irrelevant here. You either believe in democracy or you don't.

A federal United Kingdom is the obvious way forward. There are many examples of happy functioning states around the world which have successfuly tackled the problem of component countries with a federal structure.
It is absurd that the Conservative party so far refuses to grasp the point.

The stakes are high. The future of the United Kingdom and the very word "British" depends on it. A beneficial side effect is that the Conservatives can , if they are wise use the topic to cement their postion.

Heads in sand won't do.

[Steve]

David Cameron has done fantastically well over the last couple of years and combined with the implosion of the Labour Party, things are looking good. Excellent!!

But PLEASE will people drop the much repeated rubbish that we lost the last three elections because of our policies!

We lost in 1997 because we were mired in sleaze and faction fighting and that nice Mr Blair looked reasonable and marvellous, offering a new model Labour Party shorn of socialist clap trap.

We lost in 2001 because it had only been four years, Blair pretty much hadn't put a foot wrong and the economy was (apparently) rosy.

We lost in 2005 (by a significantly reduced margin) with arguably our most right wing leader and right wing policies. How so if it was our policies which were the problem?! Blair was still pretty popular, hadn't really been tainted by Iraq and the economy still looked OK.

Cameron needed to decontaminate the brand (not of policy but of perception) which he has done. And he needed to make the party sound 'reasonable' which he has done.

Politics is all about perception, sadly little to do with policy.

[Richard Nabavi]

I do not believe that the Conservative lead is purely or even mainly due to Labour's incompetence and Gordon Brown's unpopularity. Having an unpopular government is a necessary condition for an opposition party to do well, but it's not a sufficient condition. After all, Blair was very unpopular before the 2005 election. Voters need to be convinced that there is a credible and attractive alternative before they will switch.

The truth is that DC and his team have got just about everything right, including presentation, policy positioning, and revitalising the party organisation. (Of course, much groundwork for this was done before DC became leader). Some in the party would like a much more right-wing agenda, to use a shorthand term. But amongst Cameron's qualities is that he understands that he needs to carry the electorate as a whole with him.

The most interesting feature of the current polls is the fact that anti-Labour protest votes are not going to the LibDems. That shows how well Cameron has connected with the electorate as a whole.