Coffee House The Spectator Blog
Is nice but dim such a bad thing for Labour?
Labour’s lead in the polls has been pretty steady at around 10 points for a little over a year now. So why does today’s Guardian carry an article with the… Continue reading
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Should the Public Affairs Act 1975 be repealed?
9 per cent of Brits say the Public Affairs Act 1975 should be repealed, and 9 per cent say it shouldn’t, according to a new poll by YouGov. If you’re… Continue reading
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Poll: Boris could save 50 Tory MPs
YouGov have once again tested how a Boris-led Tory party would compare to a Cameron-led one in the polls. When they last did so in October, they found that Boris… Continue reading
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Budget 2013: The public’s verdict
We’ve got the first post-Budget polling from YouGov, and it brings mixed news for George Osborne. Certainly, this Budget doesn’t seem (so far) to have dented the Chancellor’s reputation the… Continue reading
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The truth about Ukip supporters
Who are all these folk jumping on Nigel Farage’s bandwagon? Ukip — which received just 3 per cent of the vote in 2010 — is now averaging about 11 per… Continue reading
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Eastleigh by-election: Four points from Ashcroft’s exit poll
The result might be in, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing useful polls can tell us about the Eastleigh by-election. What swayed the voters? Why did they vote as they… Continue reading
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The public’s verdict on the Autumn Statement
We’ve only had two days to digest it, but the early signs from YouGov are that George Osborne’s Autumn Statement has gone down a lot better than his March Budget.… Continue reading
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The death of principle
If you only have time to read one full length newspaper piece today, read this one by George Bridges, the former backroom Tory guru and CPS director. It is a brilliant,… Continue reading
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David Cameron under attack from voters, Ed Miliband, David Davis and Angela Merkel on Europe
The Sunday Papers and the broadcast shows are packed with accounts of Britain’s fractious relationship with the European Union, and what that means for David Cameron. The Observer gives space… Continue reading
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Sorry, but Barack Obama’s clearly ahead
Four years ago, on the weekend before the 2008 presidential election, political commentator John McLaughlin asked the four panellists on his show The McLaughlin Group to predict the winner. As… Continue reading
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Polls suggest Boris as leader could be worth an extra 50 Tory MPs
In their first poll conducted fully after all the party conferences, YouGov once again tested what difference replacing David Cameron with Boris Johnson would have on the Conservatives’ poll rating.… Continue reading
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David Cameron reverses Ed Miliband’s conference bounce
Just as Ed Miliband seemed to get a poll bounce from his conference speech last week, so David Cameron seems to have got one from his on Wednesday. On YouGov’s… Continue reading
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Romney narrows the gap, but Obama remains the favourite
The question after last week’s presidential debate was not who had won — there was a clear consensus that Mitt Romney had got the better of Barack Obama — but… Continue reading
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‘Are you better off?’ won’t be a winning debate line for Mitt Romney
‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’ That was the question Ronald Reagan told Americans to ask themselves when choosing their President in 1980, and it’s a… Continue reading
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Polls show big leads for Labour, but bad ratings for Ed Miliband
Over the past two days, we’ve had polls from four different pollsters, and all of them show big leads for Labour. Yesterday, Populus gave Ed Miliband’s party a 15-point lead… Continue reading
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Democrats pull ahead in key US Senate races
When I looked at the battle for the United States Senate back in July, I said it’d be tough for the Democrats to retain control. But since then — and… Continue reading
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Increased support for more spending, but also for benefit cuts
‘Support for an increase in public spending rises.’ That’s the headline generated by the latest British Social Attitudes survey results, out today. They show that the proportion of the population… Continue reading
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Ed Balls proposes coalition with Vince Cable
Ed Balls has today made his very own full, open and comprehensive offer to the Liberal Democrats – or, rather, to Vince Cable. The shadow chancellor said he could work… Continue reading
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‘David Cameron stands for being Prime Minister’
‘What do you think David Cameron stands for?’ a Tory MP asked me recently. Unsure of his point, I burbled something about ‘responsibility’ and couple of other random abstract nouns.… Continue reading
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Will No.10 raid the welfare budget for tax cuts?
David Cameron’s 10 Downing Street has an unusual setup — it has a pollster, Andrew Cooper, as its chief strategist. This helps explain why the government is (to put it… Continue reading
27 Comments