Sunday Polling
YouGov's regular poll for the Sunday Times (link behind paywall) has topline figures of CON 42%, LAB 36%, LDEM 13% - which is pretty much the average for YouGov's recent polls, and presumably a good reflection of where we really are.
As usual in polls for the Sunday Times, YouGov asked questions on a wide range of different topics. First, on the recent controversy over David Cameron's comments on Pakistan the public agreed with what Cameron actually said about Pakistan and the export of terror by 66% to 15%. However, they also had negative view about Cameron's abilities as a statesman - 30% thought he was a good statesman, 43% thought he wasn't (compare that to his overall approval ratings which remain positive). Asked to compare Cameron's abilities on the international stage to those of his predecessors, he was judged as better than Brown (by 45% to 27%), but worse than Blair (by 41% to 30%).
On council tenure, 62% of people supported the idea that future council tenants should only be given limited tenures of 5 or 10 years, rather the current unlimited tenancies. 32% opposed the idea.
Asked who the second most important member of the government was after Cameron, Nick Clegg came out narrowly ahead on 29%, followed by George Osborne on 28% and William Hague on 12%. Not surprisingly, there was a big contrast between different party supporters here - over half of Lib Dem voters thought Nick Clegg was the second most important figure in the government, Conservative and Labour supporters tended to think George Osborne was.
Finally YouGov asked about spending cuts to the Olympics and Museums and Galleries. On the Olympics, 59% continue to support Britain hosting the Olmypics, but the same proportion said that spending on it should be scaled back. On galleries and museums YouGov asked whether people would be prepared to see entrance charges brought back to avoid cutbacks from reduced government spending - the public were broadly split: 49% would support charges coming back if it avoided cutbacks, 42% would like to see entry remain free, even if it meant some cutbacks.
The only other "poll" I can see in the Sunday papers is what appears to be a voodoo poll in the Sunday Telegraph (i.e. carried out on the street by their own reporters, rather than using any proper sampling or weighting techniques.) The "poll" was about recogntion of politicians from photographs. The Sunday Telegraph normally use ICM as their pollsters, and ICM's online panel could certainly have been used to do this professionally with a represenative sample. Shame it wasn't.
