The Big Society

I'm slightly wary about mentioning them, given that the topic seems to provoke a lot of partisan discussion in the comments section here*, but this morning there was also a repeat of some YouGov questions on the Big Society, first asked two and a half weeks ago for the Sun.

The recent focus on the Big Society in the press certainly doesn't seem to have increased public understanding of it. In January 63% said they did not understand it well (28%) or didn't understand it at all (35%). That has now risen to 72% (43% not very well, 29% not at all).

When presented with a brief summary of what David Cameron says the Big Society is people continue to think it is a good idea (now by 49% to 31%), however, overwhelmingly they think the government's policies to create a Big Society will not work in practice. Only 10% think it will work, with 71% thinking it will not. Presented with the common criticism that the Big Society is just a cover for cutting services, 58% agree, with only 19% thinking it is genuine vision of how the government can cut the cost of services by getting more people involved in their local communities (12% do not agree with either statement).

Note that these questions were all asked on Monday, and will overwhelmingly have been before David Cameron's relaunch of the Big Society and media coverage of it. Personally I wouldn't expect a big shift from that... but we'll have to wait for future polls to be able to tell.

That aside, the more interesting news tonight is probably about pollsters rather than polling: the founder of Populus Andrew Cooper is expected to be confirmed as David Cameron's Director of Strategy (though my understanding is that it's not a done deal yet). It will be taken as a symbol of Cameron recommitting to a strategy of Conservative modernisation, given Andrew was a champion of modernising the party in the days when he worked for CCO long before it became accepted wisdom amongst the party leadership.

UPDATE: Tonight's YouGov/Sun voting intentions are CON 37%, LAB 44%, LD 10%, so pretty much par for the course.

(*That's my way of saying behave. This is not the place to argue - or agree! - that government policies are rubbish. It's for evidence based discussion of what the general public think)