Populus October Poll
The Populus monthly poll for the Times, bumped by a day because of economic news, has topline figures with changes from their last poll, back at the tail end of August before the conference season, of CON 45%(+2) LAB 30%(+3) LDEM 15%(-3).
A mixture of their conference and their handling seem to have pushed Labour back up to around 30% in recent polls, but in this poll at least their is also a boost in Conservative support which means the Tory lead almost unchanged from the last Populus poll. Such was the overshadowing of the Conservative conference by the economic crisis that by the time this poll was conducted their publicity boost from conference may have already been and gone, but we'll have to wait a few weeks to be sure. Meanwhile the poor old Lib Dems seem to have been squeezed following their brief conference boost - ICM last week gave them their second lowest score of Clegg's leadership, this poll is the lowest score Populus have given them under Clegg.
In other questions Gordon Brown is enjoying a boost to his reputation, his average rating out of ten is up to 4.38 from the dire 3.9 he sank to in June. David Cameron still outranks him on most measures though - he is regarded as being ahead on "good judgement" (40% to 36%), character (50% to 32%) and - rather self-evidently since what would Brown be a change from - representing change (60% to 22%). Again rather obviously Gordon Brown is seen as more experienced (77% to 11%). Cameron and Osborne continue to be more trusted on the economy than Brown and Darling by 38% to 31%.
The worst news for the government is that, despite the economic problems, people continue to look for change rather than experience. 65% still agree it is "time for a change". As I've said before, this is an incredibly strong public narrative, the sea change in public opinion that sweeps government from office. The economic situation means that the government do at least have something they can throw against it - that it's no time to risk a novice government - but that desire for change is a powerful trend to resist.
