Tomorrow, Thursday 19th August, marks the 100th day of Britain's new Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition government.
To mark that milestone a Guardian/ICM poll has been conducted to see what the British people think about the government.
And it's good news for the Government and bad news for the Labour Party.
Despite ministers from the Labour Party repeatedly stating that the Government's planned cuts to public services - the most sustained since World war II - to reduce the huge debt run up by the previous Labour Government will harm the economy even more and may even put Britain back into recession, that view actually doesn't seem to wash with the British public.
The poll has shown that 44% of the people think that the coalition is doing a good job in securing economic recovery against 37% who said it was doing a bad job.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has also persuaded the British people that it his predecessor, the Scotsman Alistair Darling, a former Marxist, who is really to blame for these cuts due to him and his administration's bad handling of the economy making the cuts necessary. 42% of voters think George Osborne is doing a good job compared to 33% who think he's doing a bad job (Britain's previous two Chancellors - Darling and Brown - have been Communist-supporting Scots and now Britain's economy is ruined. Coincidence?)
New Tory Prime Minister David Cameron also remains popular. The poll shows that 57% of voters think he is doing a good job and 52% believe he can be trusted to "make the right decisions when the going gets tough".
Overall, 46% of voters think the coalition government is doing a good job and 36% think it is doing a bad job.
That's food for thought for the Labour Party.
Coalition winning argument on economy – poll
18th August 2010
The Guardian
Guardian/ICM poll to mark 100 days of coalition shows strong support for government's cuts-based recovery strategy
The poll indicates David Cameron is still enjoying a political honeymoon. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
David Cameron's first 100 days in Downing Street have seen the coalition win the key argument over the economy, with a Guardian/ICM poll today showing that voters back austerity measures to reduce Britain's record peacetime budget deficit.
The monthly snapshot of public opinion suggests strong initial support for George Osborne's controversial cuts-based recovery strategy, with the chancellor reiterating today that the government would wreck the economy if it "budged" from its plans to slash borrowing during the course of the parliament.
Despite claims from Labour that front-loaded spending cuts risk a double-dip recession and will hit the poorest the hardest, 44% of those polled said the coalition was doing a good job in securing economic recovery against 37% who said it was doing a bad job.
The poll also showed voters were prepared to back Osborne, who has so far been successful in blaming his inheritance from Alistair Darling for fiscal pain that will see VAT rise to 20% in January and the most sustained cut in public spending since the war. While a third of voters (33%) said the chancellor was doing a bad job, 42% said he was doing a good job.
Osborne sought today to convince voters that the coalition had no alternative but to bring down borrowing. "We are all in this together," he said, repeating a key message of the government's since the election but he said the coalition's welfare cuts would be "fair and progressive".
Hard times are on their way: The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has persuaded voters that the upcoming brutal cuts to public services are as a result of the previous government's mishandling of the economy and are therefore necessary.
The coalition appear to be gearing up to end universal benefits and instead means-test them so that allowances such as the winter fuel allowance and child benefit will no longer go to well-off families. Osborne yesterday refused to rule out curbing entitlements to universal benefits.
It was the first public comment by the chancellor since his spending row with the work and pensions minister Iain Duncan Smith was resolved. IDS had been pushing to keep some of the savings his department made by tightening up benefit payments and wanted to reinvest the money in an overhaul of the benefit system. It appears the Treasury will let the DWP keep some of the department's own savings to that end.
The DWP will find the extra revenue by ending winter fuel payments to the over-65s and could also reduce the number of parents available for child benefit.
While Labour believes voters' moods will change in 2011 when VAT rises to 20% and spending cuts start to bite, the poll indicates that Cameron is still enjoying a political honeymoon. It shows that 57% of voters think he is doing a good job and 52% believe he can be trusted to "make the right decisions when the going gets tough".
More generally, the coalition remains reasonably popular, with 46% of voters deeming it to be doing a good job in running the country as against 36% who say it is doing a bad job, a 10-point margin in its favour, which has drifted down from the 23-point advantage recorded when a similar question was asked in June.
But despite some reasonably strong personal numbers for the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, when it comes to voting intentions there are clear signs that the first peacetime coalition in the era of universal suffrage is serving his Liberal Democrats less well than the Tories. Where the Conservatives are holding on to the 37% vote share which achieved in the election, a quarter of those who backed the Lib Dems have since switched sides, leaving the third party on just 18% – down one point on the month, and six on the election.
Many of these deserters have drifted towards Labour, taking its standing to 37%, and allowing a leaderless party to run the Tories level for the first time in three years.
The polarising economic argument underlies this political drift. By a margin of 77% to 9% Conservative voters are emphatically behind the coalition on the economy, just as Labour voters are strongly against them on the recovery, by 63% to 22%. Osborne's personal ratings are similarly polarised. He is wildly popular among Tory voters – who by a huge margin of 76% to 7% rate him as doing a good job. But he gets the thumbs down from 58% of Labour supporters, and produces another near-even 41%-39% split among those who voted Liberal Democrat last time around.
The chancellor rejected claims yesterday that his fast-track approach to deficit reduction represented a "gamble" with growth. "In fact the reverse is true," he said.
"The gamble would have been not to act, to put Britain's reputation at risk, and to leave the stability of the economy to the vagaries of the bond market, assuming investors around the world would continue to tolerate the largest budget deficit in the G20."
Recent economic data suggested that the pace of growth had slackened in recent weeks following the rapid 1.1% expansion in the second quarter. House prices have been slipping and consumer confidence dented by the austerity measures outlined in June's emergency budget.
The chancellor insisted, however, that there would be no backsliding from the coalition. "Britain now has a credible plan to deal with our record deficit. We must stick by it. To budge from that plan now would risk reigniting the markets' suspicions that Britain does not have the will to pay her way in the world. I will not take that risk."
He said the government wanted better value for money for public spending. "It is not about how much the government spends but about what the government does with the money. We want to be laying the foundations for economic growth and a fairer society."
The TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said: "The chancellor has a different definition of fairness to the rest of us. His spending cuts are hitting the most vulnerable, his one big tax rise was VAT – the unfairest of all – and his economic policies are bearing down on the young, trapped between unemployment and an education sector with not enough places."
Darling said: "There's nothing 'pro-growth' about taking a huge gamble with the recovery – with people's jobs. And nothing 'fair' or 'progressive' about George Osborne's budget hitting the poorest in our society hardest. He doesn't seem to understand that in government it's decisions, not warm words, that count."
ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1,001 adults aged 18+ by telephone on 13-15 August 2010. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
guardian.co.uk
To mark that milestone a Guardian/ICM poll has been conducted to see what the British people think about the government.
And it's good news for the Government and bad news for the Labour Party.
Despite ministers from the Labour Party repeatedly stating that the Government's planned cuts to public services - the most sustained since World war II - to reduce the huge debt run up by the previous Labour Government will harm the economy even more and may even put Britain back into recession, that view actually doesn't seem to wash with the British public.
The poll has shown that 44% of the people think that the coalition is doing a good job in securing economic recovery against 37% who said it was doing a bad job.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has also persuaded the British people that it his predecessor, the Scotsman Alistair Darling, a former Marxist, who is really to blame for these cuts due to him and his administration's bad handling of the economy making the cuts necessary. 42% of voters think George Osborne is doing a good job compared to 33% who think he's doing a bad job (Britain's previous two Chancellors - Darling and Brown - have been Communist-supporting Scots and now Britain's economy is ruined. Coincidence?)
New Tory Prime Minister David Cameron also remains popular. The poll shows that 57% of voters think he is doing a good job and 52% believe he can be trusted to "make the right decisions when the going gets tough".
Overall, 46% of voters think the coalition government is doing a good job and 36% think it is doing a bad job.
That's food for thought for the Labour Party.
Coalition winning argument on economy – poll
18th August 2010
The Guardian
Guardian/ICM poll to mark 100 days of coalition shows strong support for government's cuts-based recovery strategy
The poll indicates David Cameron is still enjoying a political honeymoon. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
David Cameron's first 100 days in Downing Street have seen the coalition win the key argument over the economy, with a Guardian/ICM poll today showing that voters back austerity measures to reduce Britain's record peacetime budget deficit.
The monthly snapshot of public opinion suggests strong initial support for George Osborne's controversial cuts-based recovery strategy, with the chancellor reiterating today that the government would wreck the economy if it "budged" from its plans to slash borrowing during the course of the parliament.
Despite claims from Labour that front-loaded spending cuts risk a double-dip recession and will hit the poorest the hardest, 44% of those polled said the coalition was doing a good job in securing economic recovery against 37% who said it was doing a bad job.
The poll also showed voters were prepared to back Osborne, who has so far been successful in blaming his inheritance from Alistair Darling for fiscal pain that will see VAT rise to 20% in January and the most sustained cut in public spending since the war. While a third of voters (33%) said the chancellor was doing a bad job, 42% said he was doing a good job.
Osborne sought today to convince voters that the coalition had no alternative but to bring down borrowing. "We are all in this together," he said, repeating a key message of the government's since the election but he said the coalition's welfare cuts would be "fair and progressive".
Hard times are on their way: The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has persuaded voters that the upcoming brutal cuts to public services are as a result of the previous government's mishandling of the economy and are therefore necessary.
The coalition appear to be gearing up to end universal benefits and instead means-test them so that allowances such as the winter fuel allowance and child benefit will no longer go to well-off families. Osborne yesterday refused to rule out curbing entitlements to universal benefits.
It was the first public comment by the chancellor since his spending row with the work and pensions minister Iain Duncan Smith was resolved. IDS had been pushing to keep some of the savings his department made by tightening up benefit payments and wanted to reinvest the money in an overhaul of the benefit system. It appears the Treasury will let the DWP keep some of the department's own savings to that end.
The DWP will find the extra revenue by ending winter fuel payments to the over-65s and could also reduce the number of parents available for child benefit.
While Labour believes voters' moods will change in 2011 when VAT rises to 20% and spending cuts start to bite, the poll indicates that Cameron is still enjoying a political honeymoon. It shows that 57% of voters think he is doing a good job and 52% believe he can be trusted to "make the right decisions when the going gets tough".
More generally, the coalition remains reasonably popular, with 46% of voters deeming it to be doing a good job in running the country as against 36% who say it is doing a bad job, a 10-point margin in its favour, which has drifted down from the 23-point advantage recorded when a similar question was asked in June.
But despite some reasonably strong personal numbers for the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, when it comes to voting intentions there are clear signs that the first peacetime coalition in the era of universal suffrage is serving his Liberal Democrats less well than the Tories. Where the Conservatives are holding on to the 37% vote share which achieved in the election, a quarter of those who backed the Lib Dems have since switched sides, leaving the third party on just 18% – down one point on the month, and six on the election.
Many of these deserters have drifted towards Labour, taking its standing to 37%, and allowing a leaderless party to run the Tories level for the first time in three years.
The polarising economic argument underlies this political drift. By a margin of 77% to 9% Conservative voters are emphatically behind the coalition on the economy, just as Labour voters are strongly against them on the recovery, by 63% to 22%. Osborne's personal ratings are similarly polarised. He is wildly popular among Tory voters – who by a huge margin of 76% to 7% rate him as doing a good job. But he gets the thumbs down from 58% of Labour supporters, and produces another near-even 41%-39% split among those who voted Liberal Democrat last time around.
The chancellor rejected claims yesterday that his fast-track approach to deficit reduction represented a "gamble" with growth. "In fact the reverse is true," he said.
"The gamble would have been not to act, to put Britain's reputation at risk, and to leave the stability of the economy to the vagaries of the bond market, assuming investors around the world would continue to tolerate the largest budget deficit in the G20."
Recent economic data suggested that the pace of growth had slackened in recent weeks following the rapid 1.1% expansion in the second quarter. House prices have been slipping and consumer confidence dented by the austerity measures outlined in June's emergency budget.
The chancellor insisted, however, that there would be no backsliding from the coalition. "Britain now has a credible plan to deal with our record deficit. We must stick by it. To budge from that plan now would risk reigniting the markets' suspicions that Britain does not have the will to pay her way in the world. I will not take that risk."
He said the government wanted better value for money for public spending. "It is not about how much the government spends but about what the government does with the money. We want to be laying the foundations for economic growth and a fairer society."
The TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said: "The chancellor has a different definition of fairness to the rest of us. His spending cuts are hitting the most vulnerable, his one big tax rise was VAT – the unfairest of all – and his economic policies are bearing down on the young, trapped between unemployment and an education sector with not enough places."
Darling said: "There's nothing 'pro-growth' about taking a huge gamble with the recovery – with people's jobs. And nothing 'fair' or 'progressive' about George Osborne's budget hitting the poorest in our society hardest. He doesn't seem to understand that in government it's decisions, not warm words, that count."
ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1,001 adults aged 18+ by telephone on 13-15 August 2010. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
guardian.co.uk
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