The Uselessness of Meaningless Polls

Sunny Hundal says this YouGov approval tracker is “the graph that has the coalition worried”. Up to a point. It would be worrying if there were an election this autumn. But there isn’t and there won’t be. If, as the coalition hopes, we’re four and a half years away from an election then this polling, while momentarily diverting, is essentially meaningless.

And while a +1 approval rating is hardly a matter for rejoicing one could argue that it’s surprising the government remains in the black given the sloppiness of much of its political – as opposed to policy – operation. Eventually these numbers will slip into the red but I hazard they’d already be there if, say, the election had gone a little differently and we’d ended up with a Labour-Lib Dem cohabitation. 

Regardless, there’s a limit to how useful daily polling can be at this stage of the political cycle.