The latest YouGov opinion poll for tomorrow's Daily Telegraph shows a Conservative lead of 11%. The figures are:
The most recent YouGov poll (for the Sunday Times) put the Tory lead at 13%, whilst the equivalent YouGov survey for the Daily Telegraph last month put it at 7%.
A good poll. In the near term, I think it is going to be difficult to push the poll leads to the next level.
Posted by: Praguetory | January 29, 2009 at 23:33
It is good news that we are settling around a two-digit lead within the margin of error that most polls operate within. I would hope that this lead would extend as the recession deepens.
People will become more and more angered by Brown's constant repetition of the "global recession" considering the IMF has now confirmed to us that this is well and truly britain's recession in terms of it's depth and thus is no doubt "Labour's Recession".
I would hope Mr Cameron can continue in the right direction without being distracted by issues that people are less concerned with. It is the right move to focus on the economy, as we must return the perception that the public once had of us that we truly are the party of economic competence.
Posted by: Joseph S. | January 29, 2009 at 23:38
More great news.
However the better it gets for the tories, the more I worry about whether their likely landslide will bring in daft green and social agendas.
I just want a government to fix the nations security and finances, then the people should have plenty of spare cash to sort out their own environmental and social issues...
Posted by: pp | January 29, 2009 at 23:41
Very bad result in Fenham (local election in Newcastle). We got 6% I think- Lib Dems took the seat off Lab. Very dirty tactics by BNP who sent a load of leaflets out with veterans with badges who said to vote BNP. It was sick. Liberals won by about 30- Lab, Lib Dem and BNP all very close. Very poor campaign I hear- no Tories campaigned
Posted by: Tony Walker | January 29, 2009 at 23:45
The party of economic competence you must he joking , have you lost your memory ? Sounds like your hoping that the country goes to the dogs and gets worse for political purposes , shame ok you ! These job losses are peoples livelehood and families who are in dire trouble . I hope things get better asap never mind the politics !
Posted by: Gezmond007 | January 29, 2009 at 23:51
I also do hope things get better as soon as is possible, however I am not stupid enough to believe that they will be doing anytime soon.
Do not misconstrue my words as being a celebration of an economic downturn. We are all being hit by this, regardless of what Labour may try to portray about Torys.
I hope for a conservative government to take advantage of the situation we are in to build a new era of prudence and social responsibility however I do not delight in its negative effects.
Posted by: Joseph S. | January 29, 2009 at 23:57
Ok then talk to yourself !
Posted by: Gezmond007 | January 30, 2009 at 00:00
Gezmond, you are not funny, you are a bore, go and troll somewhere else.
Posted by: RichardJ | January 30, 2009 at 00:06
Gezmond, you make me WANT to be smug when these polls are announced. You're just such a blind party animal it's almost mindblowing.
Posted by: StevenAdams | January 30, 2009 at 00:09
Gezmond, you've got to work on your spelling and punctuation old boy. Remember: Education, Education, Education. Now be a good chap and sod off.
Posted by: Johnny K | January 30, 2009 at 00:25
I read the word "Troll" a lot on this site; to what definition do you attach it?
Posted by: Tristan Downing | January 30, 2009 at 00:26
Gezmond - To try to respond to you without getting personal or rude, tempting though that is, the whole point is that it is the Labour Government who have got us into this mess and so are responsible for the job losses, house repossessions, business failures and collapse of our economy. Since under Brown your party are incapable of even acknowledging the scale and cause of the problem, let alone putting in place effective measures to address it, then the only hope for the country and us all is a swift change of government.
Posted by: Mr Angry | January 30, 2009 at 00:47
@Tristan Dowling.
A troll appears to be anyone who refuses to toe the party line. Trolls are subject to abuse, bullying, derision, humiliation.
Suppose I must be a troll! But I can spell and punctuate!
I'll sod off!
Posted by: Liz | January 30, 2009 at 00:55
"However the better it gets for the tories, the more I worry about whether their likely landslide will bring in daft green and social agendas."
PP, as a country, we cannot afford not to bring in both green and social agendas if we win the next GE.
Yes, the over riding priority is the economy, but that is not what pushed us from power last time. Failure to address the social problems of this country, or being able to afford and construct a manufacturing and transport base fit for this century was our biggest failure back then. Never forget that.
We cannot continue to rely on oil and gas on a huge scale from unstable countries across the globe. And most importantly, we need food security as well. All issues that have been highlighted and given prominence by Cameron. While Brown ran the country for personal and party political advantage, its encouraging that Cameron and Osborne have raised these issues and their importance to the future prosperity and health of the UK rather than the Tory party.
Posted by: ChrisD | January 30, 2009 at 01:40
One target at a time. The chief target must be Brown, Brown and Brown. Relentlessly and cruelly.
For the sake of all of us.
Posted by: denverthen | January 30, 2009 at 03:40
A good poll.
Trolls getting angry and upset - also a good sign.
Interesting too to note certain West London Labour MPs desperately trying to climb on the Anti-Heathrow expansion bandwagon purely out of self-interest and desperation (yes Andy Slaughter - I'm talking about YOU!)
It won't save their skins...
Posted by: Sally Roberts | January 30, 2009 at 07:48
Until we have our clause 4 moment, there will be plenty of people who will not support us and much of our support will be soft and of the "good time friends" type. If we want to see a truly massive landslide we will have to put to bed both Thatcherism (in its simplest form) and sleaze.
"whether their likely landslide will bring in daft green and social agendas."
What even dafter than Labours lip service to green issues and £60.50 JSA?
Posted by: The Bishop Swine | January 30, 2009 at 08:15
Given such a good result it is very dissapointing that noone was available to do the radio 4 today prog regarding italian and portugese workers being brought in to build UK power stations.
Not as disgraceful as the government not putting up anyone (which was pointedly mentioned - not the usual 'noone was available' soft-soap), but disppointing not to have a tory ripping the government to pieces none the less.
If gordon brown having an nervous/emotional breakdown is the quickest way to save the UK, then so be it - rip him to bits, and tar his cabinet for covering it up so far.
Posted by: pp | January 30, 2009 at 08:26
Liz I don't want to see you go, but (note the ,) your punctuation is debatable at best.
Posted by: The Bishop's nasty wife | January 30, 2009 at 08:26
Gezmond the troll chats too much ****
Posted by: YMT | January 30, 2009 at 08:44
"A troll appears to be anyone who refuses to toe the party line" - Liz
Quite apart from the fact that I disagree, you mean "tow".
Posted by: Super Blue | January 30, 2009 at 09:13
Not only were Lib-Dems successful in gaining a seat in Newcastle with only 6% voting Conservative but yesterday in Manchester the Lib Dems kept a seat in Didsbury with 56% of the vote against the Conservative's 13 %. The big northern cities are still rejecting the Conservatives. Those who talk of a Conservative "landslide" could be in cloud-cuckoo land!
Posted by: Anon R | January 30, 2009 at 09:44
Not only were Lib-Dems successful in gaining a seat in Newcastle with only 6% voting Conservative but yesterday in Manchester the Lib Dems kept a seat in Didsbury with 56% of the vote against the Conservative's 13 %. The big northern cities are still rejecting the Conservatives. Those who talk of a Conservative "landslide" could be in cloud-cuckoo land!
Posted by: Anon R | January 30, 2009 at 09:45
Tristan - in internet forums in general, a Troll is someone whose aim is to start a big row for the sake of it by posting stupid, vicious or offensive posts, rather than actually contributing to a discussion.
But this is a political site where that is par for the course! It is clearer with, say a girly discussion on Damsels.org when someone wades in being gratuitously offensive. There are some weird people out there.
The general rule with suspect trolls is to publicly identify and then ignore - not to engage.
Gezmond007 has expressed a common (wrong) Labour view rather than been gratuitous, so the label seems unfair on the strength of this thread. So I would say he deserves a rebuttal, and only to be ignored if it turns into a personalised rant.
Posted by: David Bouvier | January 30, 2009 at 10:21
Posted by: Super Blue | January 30, 2009 at 09:13
"A troll appears to be anyone who refuses to toe the party line" - Liz
Quite apart from the fact that I disagree, you mean "tow".
As resident grammar critic to those hypocrites who critique others' gramatical errors, I'll correct you. It's "toe the line", as in "place your toe on the line", rather than "tow the line", as in "pull a rope".
Posted by: The Bishop's nasty wife | January 30, 2009 at 08:26
Liz I don't want to see you go, but (note the ,) your punctuation is debatable at best.
I see another bloody hypocrite. I'll correct this for you, allowing your dubious parentheses, but adding the missing comma.
Liz, I don't want to see you go, but (note the ",") your punctuation is debatable at best.
Could I also ask everyone to stop accusing other people of being trolls? This is a job for the editor. You may well be right, but there is only one thing to do with trolls, and that is ignore them.
Finally, I'm still guessing that there will be a Tory landslide of about 100 seats at the next election.
Posted by: resident leftie | January 30, 2009 at 10:22
I'm not complacent, and I hate talk of landslides, but to look at isolated council by-elections is meaningless.
In Nuneaton & Bedworth last year the conservatives were pushed into fourth place in a couple of by-elections, yet took control of the council in the actual local elections for the first time ever.
Council by-elections are pretty meaningless.
Posted by: James | January 30, 2009 at 10:24
Last month's equivalent poll
Con 42
LibDem 14
Lab 35
This poll
Con 43
LibDem 16
Lab 32
Now, since I believe most of these people polled are Labour voters, I see 2% switching to LibDems and 1% to Tories.
That's much better than down 2% as stated above.
Might someone explain where the down 2% comes from?
Posted by: m dowding | January 30, 2009 at 11:29
I agree with James - local authority by-elections are more often than not determined by local not national issues.
Polls are good but very volatile. The hard work must continue
Posted by: NigelC | January 30, 2009 at 11:31
resident leftie
your falling into a very old trap indeed. If you disapprove of those who whine on endlessly about grammatical error's or those who mark others as trolls then I would recommended that you simply turn the other cheek and hope that they will go away.
It's very much like the foolish conversations about the right pronunciation of English, in so much as it only proves that one group feels it is better than the other. Listening to the Queen or prince Phillip murdering our language, is always a very good way of putting these things in their proper perspective.
Posted by: The Bishop Swine | January 30, 2009 at 11:42
The +/- on the grapic should always refer to the previous equivalent poll (i.e. in this case the Telegraph YouGov). Otherwise they make no sense.
This is demonstated when you look at the numbers here in relation to the Dec 19th Telegraph YouGov:
C 42 43 +1
La 35 32 -3
Li 14 16 +2
We see that Labour has lost 3 while the other main parties have gained 3 collectively.
Please, please, please Tim&Jonathan always have +/- in regards to the previous equivalent poll. Pwease!!!
Posted by: Conand | January 30, 2009 at 12:34
Johnny K , YMT and the other clever ones , I am dyslexic and can't spell etc very well , theres no need to be rude. People like you are the reason why the Tory party got such a bad name in the recent past.
Richard I,m not trying to be funny , just pointing out recent history which you seem to have forgotten.
Steven I,m not a member of any party so cant be a party animal. Just a concerned small businessman . I think the goverment have made mistakes , but I do feel that they are trying to do something about it . We will see if it works. I just get fed up of people on here writing with glee about all the doom and gloom.
I am worried for my small business and for my staff who work for me but I don,t see at present what Dave Cameron can offer that is any different to Gordon Brown.
If that means I am a troll , then so be it, but if the people on here are representative of the Tory party in general then I fear for the future.
Posted by: gezmond007 | January 30, 2009 at 14:40
haha - Gez -that last post proves you are a Troll!!! Trolls always pretend to be "floating voters" or "ex-Tories" , when it is obvious that they are labour supporters (sometimes UKIP) A troll is, as I understand it, someone who is from a particular party, but attempts to post negative comments about a different one whilst attempting (usually badly) to conceal their identity. residentleftie, who often contributes, is not a Troll as he/she makes it clear he loathes the Tory party. If you don't believe these sad people exist ask Mike Smithson at Political betting - he has unmasked a few of them!
Posted by: NigelJ | January 30, 2009 at 14:55
Exactly, NigelJ! We have quite a number of left-wing contributors and those who are not trolls in my book would include Resident Leftie, Northern Monkey and Comstock. As you say, trolls usually pretend to be floating voters or are the person who says that they have voted Tory "all my life" BUT....
It is to Conservative Home's eternal credit that we have posters from all parties and none and disagreement is part of the cut and thrust of life here! It is when there is either personal nastiness or merely dishonesty of intent that makes one start to think about small hairy creatures that live under bridges...
Posted by: Sally Roberts | January 30, 2009 at 15:05
Nigel if it makes you happy and you want to carry on with your troll name calling , just carry on.
Posted by: gezmond007 | January 30, 2009 at 15:05
Sal I agree but I'm not hairy and don't live under a bridge! but I like the description .
Posted by: gezmond007 | January 30, 2009 at 15:09
Gez I was just thinking of the little troll toys I used to collect as a child! I am sure you don't resemble them as presumably you are not made of plastic, don't have long hair in lurid colours and I suspect don't have a hole in the middle of your anatomy to enable you to sit atop a pencil!
Posted by: Sally Roberts | January 30, 2009 at 15:26
Tories might head the Opinion Poll ratings bu yesterday's local elections gave the Lib Dems two gains (Redbridge and Newcastle) and one hold (Manchester). If I'm correct the final score looks like Lib Dems 3 Tories 0 !
Posted by: Anon R | January 30, 2009 at 15:27
Tories might head the Opinion Poll ratings bu yesterday's local elections gave the Lib Dems two gains (Redbridge and Newcastle) and one hold (Manchester). If I'm correct the final score looks like Lib Dems 3 Tories 0 !
Posted by: Anon R | January 30, 2009 at 15:27
----------------
Works for me, I want The LibDems second, Labour WENT4th!
Posted by: m dowding | January 30, 2009 at 15:41
Sal , I think I remember them , they look a bit like Fred Flintstone !
Posted by: gezmond007 | January 30, 2009 at 15:42
"Gez I was just thinking of the little troll toys I used to collect as a child! I am sure you don't resemble them as presumably you are not made of plastic"
Gezmond reminds me of something else that rhymes with "plastic" which I shall not repeat here.
Posted by: RichardJ | January 30, 2009 at 16:21
Grow up Richard !
Posted by: gezmond007 | January 30, 2009 at 16:52
gezmond the troll has feelings, awwwwww diddums... wanna hanky?
Posted by: YMT | January 30, 2009 at 18:25
NigelJ a troll is somebody who post's simply to get other people upset. It comes from trolling for effect. It's not a term that can be applied simply to somebody you don't agree with but is rather somebody who is insincere about the views they post, and who posts simply to cause as much trouble as possible.
Posted by: The Bishop's Intelligent and sexy wife | January 30, 2009 at 21:02
Just a couple of points-Gezmond007 needs to stay in more! Obviously the fresh air of a Tory revival is just too much for him/her. Get a life!!
Liz, dont sod off, I like your style!Finally,
Mdowding has a valid point. Where are the numbers!!!!????????
Love you all.
Posted by: Bill Pipe | February 02, 2009 at 00:48