For those not getting graphics - - -
Conservative-
Labour ---------32% - =-5%
Liberal Dmcrts 15% - = +3%
Others------
Christina
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CONSERVATIVE HOME 30.11.08
Was this the week that determined the result of the general election?

A week is a long time in politics, as the saying goes, and the last
seven days are certainly testament to that.
The week began with Alistair Darling's Pre-Budget Report, which
showed the country heading for record borrowing, and a devastating
attack on the Government's economic record by George Osborne.
The following day, Nick Wood wrote on this website that Labour had
made it virtually impossible for themselves to win the next election.
And the opinion polls published this weekend - carried out since
Monday's PBR
- would seem to back up that assertion, showing Tory leads of 15
per cent and 11 per cent respectively.
But those polls were both taken before the full details emerged about
the arrest of Tory immigration spokesmen Damian Green on Thursday
afternoon.
And whilst his plight has understandably had less media prominence on
account of the terrorist atrocities in India, I believe that the
public will feel a sense of outrage about his treatment and the
position of the Government in the whole affair, which, even if not
complicit (as it claims), has stood by, unconcerned about the
implications it has for democratic accountability of the executive.
Will we be able to look back in 18 months' time and conclude that
this was the week which determined the result of the next election?
Jonathan Isaby
============
OBSERVER 30.11.08
Labour poll fall after Darling report
Alistair Darling's £20bn 'spend now, pay later' pre-Budget report may
have been the beginning of the end of Gordon Brown's 'bounce' in the
polls, according to today's Ipsos MORI survey for The Observer.
The poll, conducted on Thursday and Friday, shows that among those
certain to vote Labour's share has dropped by five percentage points
to 32 per cent since mid-November.
By contrast, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have gone up
by three percentage points to 43 and 15 per cent respectively.
Given that one of the PBR's main aims was to encourage people to
start spending again and feel better about their finances, it has not
had the desired effect. On balance people remain pessimistic about
their personal financial outlook over the next 12 months, with 38 per
cent expecting things to get worse and just 15 per cent thinking they
will improve. Forty-five per cent expect them to stay the same. Only
6 per cent say they will spend more (despite the cut in VAT) and one
in four (26 per cent) say they will spend less. Most people (67 per
cent) say the PBR will make no difference to their spending plans.
But there is some encouragement for Brown and Darling's claim to be
the men of experience needed in hard times. A higher proportion of
the public trusts the Prime Minister and Chancellor in the current
crisis than trusts David Cameron and shadow chancellor George
Osborne. Almost half (46 per cent) say they have faith in Brown/
Darling while 33 per cent trust Cameron/Osborne.
On the issue of which team they believe would best run the country
after the next general election, however, Brown/Darling and Cameron/
Osborne are both on 39 per cent.
While the Brown comeback may have reached its high point, the poll
suggests the economic crisis has thrown the next election wide open.
Sunday, 30 November 2008
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