David Blackburn

Tories on the rise in latest poll

Sweet news for David Cameron in today’s Sunday Times YouGov poll, which you can read here: the Tories have broken the 40 percent barrier for the first time since the first leaders’ debate. As the senior partners, the coalition was always going to suit the Conservatives more than the Liberal Democrats. Sure enough, the Liberal Democrats have fallen away by 3 points on last month’s figures to 18 percent – their worst performance since the first TV debate and the beginning of Cleggmania. Those who voted yellow against blue won’t be doing so again.

As the indispensible Anthony Wells notes, Clegg’s personal ratings remain in honeymoon territory, and I wonder if his parties’ popularity will suffer a further reverse when his popularity takes a plunge as the government starts cutting. Politically, it is crucial that the Lib Dems deliver a measure of political or a flagship green policy. As an aside, it was surely significant that the first casualty of this government was a Liberal Democrat, proving that they are just politicians.

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