Populus/Times - CON 37, LAB 39, LDEM 11

Populus's monthly poll for the Times is published today. Topline figures with changes from last month are CON 37%(+1), LAB 39%(-1), LDEM 11%(nc). There's no obvious sign of a post-election drop for the Lib Dems here, but it is the smaller Labour lead Populus have recorded since last year.

Populus also asked some questions on whether the Lib Dems entering coalition has had any positive impact on their image - 38% of people think that by entering coalition the Liberal Democrats have shown they are a "responsible party of government", 37% think they have shown that "coalition governments can be strong and decisive", 30% that the Lib Dems have made a difference and 36% that a vote for the Lib Dems is not a wasted vote. Compared to the proportion of the public who say they'd vote Liberal Democrat these are all very positive findings...alas, I expect we'll find once we see the detailled tables that most of these warm opinions come from Conservative voters who may think it's good of the Lib Dems to support a Tory government, but wouldn't actually vote for them.

Finally Populus asked people too look at a list of words for the three party leaders and say which three they most associated with them. Alas, the Times presents the findings as wordles, rather than duller but infinitely more usuable tables, but peering at the font sizes it looks to me like the words most associated with Clegg were "Out of his depth", followed by "Weak" then "out of touch". Ed Miliband is most associated with the words "Out of his depth", followed by "weak", then it looks like a close call between "Out of touch", "smug" and "weird". David Cameron is the only leader to have a positive term in his top three - he is seen as "Determined", followed by the far less positive "Smug" and "Arrogant" - I'll have a better look at these once we get some numbers.

UPDATE: The tables for the questions on the party leaders are now up here.

The word most commonly associated with David Cameron was determined (34%), the only leader to have a positive term amongst the words most associated with him. It was followed by arrogant (29%) and smug (28%), then "stands up for Britain" (24%), competent (23%), "out of touch" (23%), "up to the job" (22%) - a pretty even mix of positive and negative views.

For Ed Miliband the most commonly picked phrase was "out of his depth" (41%), followed by weak (28%). Below that came smug (22%), "out of touch" (22%), weird (21%) then indecisive (18%) - all negative words. The most commonly cited positive words or phrases were determined (16%) and fair, likeable and principled (all down on 14%).

Nick Clegg had the most negative perceptions. 50% associated him with being "out of his depth", followed again by weak (35%), then "out of touch" (24%). The positive phrase most associated with Clegg was being likeable (21%), but this was followed by indecisive (19%) and dishonest (17%).