Sunday 27 July 2008

The World Turned Upside Down:Cameron's Leadership Questioned

poll In the past week several backbench Conservative MPs have been calling for a vote of no confidence in David Cameron's leadership. They have been unhappy at his modernisation of the party, focusing on such issues as climate change and social responsibility.

Due to popular (or rather unpopular!) demand William Hill opened a book on who would be the next Conservative leader. William Hague is Hill's 9/4 favourite with David Davis offered at 5/1 and George Osborne at 10/1.

Meanwhile, YouGov’s monthly poll for the Telegraph has voting intention figures, with changes from YouGov’s last poll, of CON 32%(-1), LAB 41%(+1), LDEM 16%(+1).

UK Polling Report who look at these things said:

"...there is still a sharp difference between positive opinions of Gordon Brown, who enjoys a net approval rating of plus 7 as Prime Minister, and negative opinions of the government, whose net approval rating is at minus 25. It’s been a lot lower (at some points in the last year it reached minus 43)... The obvious explanation is that Labour’s positive position in the polls at the moment is based on Gordon Brown, he hasn’t yet transferred that popularity onto the government or the Labour party."

Except that was all July 2007.

Can such a catastrophic fall from grace be based on any rational and objective analysis of the man, his government, policies and performance. Sure mistakes have been made but add a dash of "media character assassination" and a "vilification of the prime minister on his first anniversary [that] is grotesque" and so he becomes the most unpopular leader since [insert odious leader of choice from any time in the history of the world here].

As, Simon Jenkins wrote in no piece of flattery, back in June "The psychological abuse now being heaped on Gordon Brown is beyond reason".

Sad.

mrsb

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