The Tories Outpoll Labour

A poll today has put David Cameron’s Tories ahead of Labour for the first time for several years.  After almost a decade of Blair it’s no surprise that the UK electorate is ready for a change.  I noticed this shift prior to the last election and expected the Conservatives to poll better than they did.  I guess it may have been the Howard factor.

From The Observer: -

Last night’s polls showed a spurt in Tory support since Cameron’s victory - and flagging support for Brown. ICM, in the Sunday Telegraph says if an election were held tomorrow, the Conservatives would get 37 per cent, against 35 per cent for Labour. When respondents were asked how they would vote in a future Cameron-Brown contest, the gap widened to 40 per cent for the Tories, giving them a three-point lead.

A YouGov poll in the Sunday Times showed the Tories leading Labour by 37 per cent to 36 per cent - a two-point rise for the Conservatives and one-point fall for Labour in a month. Brown’s approval rating - more than 40 per cent before the general election last May - is now just 4 per cent.

The Tories had trailed Labour in every poll since January 1993 except for a single month, September 2000, during the fuel crisis.

When flying back from Tallinn yesterday I spoke to a guy who owned a (automobile) panel spraying business in Wolverhampton.  He was in Estonia looking at outsourcing his business there.  He was frustrated with the Labour governments anti-business policies.  Gordon Brown likes to portray himself as a pro-business chancellor and gets very indignant when people challenge his credentials…my airborne interlocutor’s opinion?  “He has no idea, he needs to get a proper job.  Let the businessmen run business.”   He was especially scornful of the minimum wage, which has crucified his business – he competes directly in the global marketplace.

It’s hard to heap too much blame on Labour when globalisation is beyond their control, but it does grate when Labour claim to be a pro-business government, there is little to suggest they have created an “opportunity economy.”