Cameron’s possibly winning position

My article in The Independent on Sunday today is part of a continuing series explaining why popular attitudes towards Europe might not be such a problem for David Cameron as might be assumed.
Since May 2010, when the general election coincided with the start of the euro crisis, most opinion polls, including our ComRes today, have [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 19 May 2013 at 2:57 pm

UKIP Surges to Record High

The UK Independence Party is on 19 per cent, the highest share recorded by any pollster, in a ComRes poll for tomorrow’s The Independent on Sunday, shared with the Sunday Mirror.

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 18 May 2013 at 7:27 pm

Poll alert

We have a ComRes opinion poll in The Independent on Sunday tomorrow, shared with the Sunday Mirror. The results will cause a bit of a stir.
As well as asking people how they would vote, and who would be the best prime minister, we asked if people agreed or disagreed with the following:
If a referendum were [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 18 May 2013 at 10:27 am

Local elections: Labour didn’t do enough to win in 2015

What we do not know about yesterday’s local elections is how many UKIP voters will go, or go back, to the Conservatives when they are warned that a vote for Nigel Farage will let Ed Miliband into Downing Street.
But we can say this much. The early BBC estimates for the change in vote share in [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Friday, 3 May 2013 at 2:14 pm

Cameron: More Popular Than John Major

A Conservative told me: “David Cameron’s approval rating as prime minister is better than any previous prime minister at this point, since MORI started polling on this, apart from Tony Blair in his first term.”
That didn’t sound right to me, so I looked up the figures.
Looking at net satisfaction with the way that they were [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 27 April 2013 at 12:07 pm

Some More Thatcherite Than Others

Great detail in a YouGov poll spotted by Hopi Sen, who sent me this “Skitch”. Among those who thought Thatcher was a great prime minister, Blair is her heir; among those who thought she was terrible, Cameron is.

This is partly a false negative created by Labour supporters who disliked Thatcher and therefore say that Cameron [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 24 April 2013 at 6:42 pm

The Pantheon of Prime Ministers

One of the seminars Jon Davis and I teach in the “Blair Government” and “New Labour in Government” classes at Queen Mary, University of London, discusses the merits of British prime ministers and tries to place Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in the league table, as I mention in The Independent on Sunday today.
YouGov’s poll [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 14 April 2013 at 11:34 am

Thatcher: divisive, half right and not “the greatest”

Voters disagree with David Cameron’s description of Margaret Thatcher as “the greatest British peacetime prime minister” by 41 per cent to 33 per cent, according to a ComRes poll for tomorrow’s Independent on Sunday, shared with the Sunday Mirror. And 60 per cent oppose taxpayer funding for next week’s funeral.
The poll, taken on Wednesday and [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 13 April 2013 at 7:26 pm

Poll alert

We have a ComRes opinion poll in The Independent on Sunday tomorrow, shared with the Sunday Mirror. We ask a lot of questions about Margaret Thatcher, in addition to our usual questions about how people intend to vote: Is there a Thatcher effect?
We asked people what they remember her for, and if they agreed or [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 13 April 2013 at 10:03 am

General Election Results, Great Britain, 1945-2010

I cannot find these figures on the internet, so I post them in case anyone else needs them. These are the shares of the vote won by the main parties in recent general elections, in Great Britain only.
The UK figures are widely available, and are often cited when the GB figures should be used. These [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 11 April 2013 at 9:39 pm