More from the YouGov/Sunday Times poll
There aren't the normal wide grab bag of question topic's in today's YouGov/Sunday Times poll, instead it concentrates on the G20 and MPs expenses.
Looking at the regular trackers first Gordon Brown's personal ratings have risen strongly - 41% now think he is doing well as Prime Minister, 53% badly, for a net approval of minus 12. I think this is the best personal rating Brown has received in the YouGov/Sunday Times series (slightly different questions make quite a difference on approval ratings, so it's important to compare like to like) since way back in 2007 during his original "Brown bounce". Cameron's approval rating has fallen slightly from its heights last month, but remains strongly positive at plus 25.
There was a slight improvement in economic optimism, but hardly a transformation. 87% thought the economy was bad or very bad, compared to 92% last month. 25% were positive about their personal finances compared to 21% in December. Brown & Darling are also once again the preferred team to deal with the present crisis, leading Cameron & Osborne by 30% to 28%.
At the simplest level people approved of the G20 summit. 53% said it was a success, 21% said it failed. Looking more closely though respondents were rather less enthusiastic, rather more cynical. Of that 53% only 6% said it succeeded well, 47% said it succeeded "on balance". 31% thought world leaders were committed to working together as a result of the G20, but 25% though they were anyway and the G20 had made no difference, and 32% thought they were deeply divided and the G20 was merely papering over cracks. 44% of people thought that the G20 summit would help deal with the recession in Britain, but 42% thought it would make no difference or make things worse.
YouGov also asked about MPs expenses. Perhaps surprisingly given the normal hostility towards politicians there was a fair degree of support and sympathy for Jacqui Smith. 34% of people thought that she should resign following the criticism she has faced over claiming her sister's spare room as her main residence and for accidentally claiming two blue movies on her expenses, but 58% thought she was no worse than anyone alse and should keep her job. I'm slightly wary that the question is really asking two things - one whether Jacqui Smith is worse than other MPs or not, and secondly whether she should resign or not - but either way, the reaction seems to be more that they are "all at it", rather than focusing on Smith personally.
On wider questions 81% of people thought the allowance system for MPs required urgant reform, with 15% saying it had been blown out of proportion by the media. YouGov also asked whether people would prefer to see MPs allowances reformed by tightening up procedures to make sure claims are genuine, or whether their allowances should be scrapped and replaced by a higher salary - this time the public preferred the latter by 54% to 39%. This is in sharp contrast to a YouGov question for the Telegraph that gave people the same sort of options and got a result the other way round. The differences were things like saying allowances should only be "genuine" in this version or "necessary outgoings" in the Telegraph version, this version pointing out salary would be taxable and so on. It suggests that, in theory, people's reactions would depend on the detail of any proposals (in practice, I expect they'd depend on the media reaction and whether it was presented as reform, or MPs giving themselves another pay rise).
There was also an ICM poll in the Sunday Mirror, whose coverage prevents us telling much from it. 70% thought Brown had down well at the G20, 69% thought the summit would help the world economy. Again, a positive reaction, thought without seeing what actual answers they gave to actual questions it's hard to say how enthusiastic respondents were. There was no sign of any voting intention question asked.
