Tories most trusted with economy
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Independent Minds
The Conservatives have overtaken Labour as the party most trusted to handle the economic crisis, according to a poll for The Independent.
The ComRes survey suggests David Cameron is winning over former Liberal Democrat supporters as he builds a commanding poll lead which has put him on course for a huge majority of 128 at the next general election.
When asked to put party allegiance aside and say who they trusted most to steer Britain through the economic crisis, 35 per cent of respondents said the Tories , 28 per cent said Labour and 9 per cent said the Liberal Democrats.
It is the first time the Tories have come out on top since ComRes began asking the question in September. In November, 47 per cent trusted Labour and 28 per cent trusted the Tories.
The latest poll puts support for the Tories at 44 per cent and for Labour at 28 per cent, the Liberal Democrats at 17 per cent and other parties at 11 per cent. The Tories lead Labour in all age and social groups except the bottom "DE" group.
One in five (21 per cent) of those who voted Liberal Democrat in 2005 say they intend to vote Tory now, while 7 per cent would switch to Labour. Support for the Tories is the most solid of any of the parties; 95 per cent of people who identify as Tory say they will vote for the party, against 81 per cent for Labour and 82 per cent for the Liberal Democrats.
Only 57 per cent of Labour supporters are "certain" to vote, compared to 71 per cent of Tory supporters and 62 per cent of Liberal Democrats. Almost a third of Liberal Democrat voters from 2005 (31 per cent) believe the Tories are the best team on the economy, while 22 per cent opt for Labour and 20 per cent for their own party.
Meanwhile, the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, said ministers must have the "humility" to admit the Government made mistakes before the crisis.
"There are a lot of lessons to be learnt by regulators, governments, all of us ... If there is a fault, it is our collective responsibility," he said.
"All of us have to have the humility to accept that over the last few years, things got out of alignment."
He will announce plans today for a new fund to rescue projects funded by public-private partnerships which are threatened by the credit crunch, including the widening of the M25.
ComRes telephoned 1,006 adults between Friday and Sunday. Data was weighted by past vote recall. ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
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Comments
However on the issue of Liberty and the return of the peoples rights and freedoms they are straggling along with NuLabour
These polls are fairly meaningless. I for one can't see that anything the Tories propose to do - if they know themselves - will get us out of the current mess, and if they cut government spending too soon and also raise taxes to shrink the budget deficit that will make matters even worse. They will not get my vote. These plonkers can seriously damage your wealth - even further than the present shower.
I agree with you that there have been some pretty poor Tory Chancellors - including Winston Churchill, Anthony Barber and John Major. There have also been some excellent ones - including Geoffrey Howe and Ken Clarke. However, no Tory Chancellor could realistically be accused of sowing the seeds of the present crisis. In 1997, not only was the economy in good shape with the balance of payments in surplus and the government finances more or less in balance, but every indicator was pointing the right way: inflation was low and falling; unemployment was still fairly high, but that was falling fairly rapidly too; and tax receipts were rising faster than government spending. These trends continued for the first four years of Brown's Chancellorship - without any obvious discontinuity in 1997. (Actually if you look at the time series of virtually ANY economic parameter, you can hardly ever see any abrupt changes at the time of a general election. Most changes to economic policies take around two or more years to have any effect, and most governments don't do everything on day one of their incumbency. They continue to fiddle until they are thrown out!). Things only really started to go wrong in about 2001-02.
Your comments about cutting public spending and raising taxes "too soon" are based on a "crass Keynesian" analysis, (to plagiarise Herr Stonebridge). Geoffrey Howe DID cut public spending and raise taxes in the teeth of a recession, and was much criticised by the 364 economists who wrote to the Times on 23 March 1981 for doing so. Yet, the Bank of England claims that, in the period 1982 to 1990, Britain experienced its strongest period of economic growth since the war and the second strongest since the middle of the nineteenth century, (on an annualised basis)! Whether the Tories would adopt such policies again is, of course, a matter of speculation - since, as you say, they won't say!
Maybe I should just watch whilst Europe recovers faster and further than the UK and leave Britain to UKIPs, BNPs and the like.
We have become a selfish petty-minded community with no leadership, vision or heart. It wasn't Labour or even the Tories that did it but ourselves thinking, spend, borrow spend solved all problems and that houses were sources of wealth rather than places in communities to live. Poor fools us.
George Osborne was severely tainted by Mandelson whose word I find it difficult to trust. The competence of GO is endorsed by Kenneth Clark which speaks for itself.
I have every hope and confidence that DC and his team will bring some sanity and respect back to the world of politics.
Do any of them have any policies that are radically different any more?
Do any of them have the bravery to enforce some discipline & standards.....everywhere!. Banks, Schools, Borders....Media etc
What appears to be happening is a growing recognition that the Treasury/City/BoE/FSA cabal doesn't benefit Scotland regardless of whether it's the Tories or Labour in power in Westminster.
"What appears to be happening is a growing recognition that the Treasury/City/BoE/FSA cabal doesn't benefit Scotland regardless of whether it's the Tories or Labour in power in Westminster." Now, I wonder which "city" we could be taking about? HBOS and RBS were both headquartered near EDINBURGH. None of the banks headquartered in the City of London, (apart from Lloyds TSB, who were strongarmed into "rescuing HBOS), have sought government / taxpayer funds. Those hailing from Newcastle, Bradford, Bingley and Leicester have had to be helped! As for Scots generally, consider the following:
Our previous Prime Minister was educated in Scotland;
Our present Prime Minister and previous Chancellor is a Scot;
Our present Chancellor is a Scot;
The chairman of the Treasury Select committee is a Scot;
The previous chairman of the FSA is a Scot. . . .
Are you beginning to get the picture?
With respect to the so-called "deregulation", I would like to quote Gordon Brown speaking on Radio Oxford on 27th February: " We set up the the Financial Services Authority to, you know before we came into power there was a sort of self regulatory system so you know they more or less regulated themselves. We brought in a statutory regulatory system, supervisory system . . ." So don't blame people in power BEFORE 1997 for poor regulation!
As for houses being a source of wealth, according to the Halifax House Price Index, between 1990 and 1997, (i.e. during John Major's premiership), the average price of a house FELL from 68,950 pounds to 68,504 pounds. Hardly a source of wealth at that time! However, according to the same index, the average price rose between 1997 and 2007 from 68,504 pounds to 196,478 pounds. This represents a compound annual growth rate of 11.1%. I strongly suspect that it was the poor performance of the housing market - all that negative equity and all those repossessions - that did for the Tories in 1997. One might have thought that this searing experience would have destroyed the housing myth for a generation! However, it didn't. This shows just how stupid "ordinary" people can be.