Anthony Wells

Increase in support for troops in Afghanistan

An ICM poll for the BBC today is showing a increase in support for British military involvement in Afghanistan. There are still more people opposed than supportive of British involvement - 48% to 40%, but this is down from when ICM last asked in 2006 when the figures were 53%

First budget polling

The first snapshot budget poll - done on Wednesday afternoon and evening by Populus - is up on the Times website. Only 596 respondents and no voting intention, but it is our first straw in the wind and it's a mixed picture for the government. The 'showroom

Booze and new cars

We probably won't get any actually polling evidence on the budget until tonight at the very earliest. If the two biggest changes in the budget were taxes on alcohol and cars, what can we expect to see? The Wine and Spirit Trade Association commissioned an ICM poll on

See, it does happen

A special in response to the criticism you sometimes see that "no one I know ever gets called by a pollster". Remember there are only a couple of hundred voting intention polls carried out each year, and they include a one or maybe two thousand people. The chance

Budget Day

Today is budget day and it is normally the excuse for lots of newspapers to commission polls, so in the next few days we can expect to get lots of data to paw over. Meanwhile, here's a pre-budget poll for accountants BDO Stoy Hayward by YouGov. It looks

Trust

MORI have published their annual survey on trust in professionals, carried out for the Royal College of Physicians. Doctors are the most trusted of the professions MORI asked about (as indeed they always are!). As Bob Worcester says on the results page, the most surprising thing about the survey is

Tory lead falling in latest Populus poll

Populus's monthly poll for the Times has topline voting intention figures, with changes from last month, of CON 37%(-3), LAB 34%(+3), LDEM 19%(+2). The poll was conducted between the 7th and the 9th. It's always a mistake to read too much into a

Ipsos MORI February poll

MORI have released their monthly political monitor. The topline figures, with changes from their January poll, are CON 39%(+2), LAB 37%(-1), LDEM 16%(nc). The fieldwork was conducted between the 21st and 26th February, so it's actually slightly older than last weekend's YouGov poll.

But ICM poll suggests Lib Dem voters would like a referendum on both

While the Lib Dems' MORI poll shows that, offered the choice, people prefer a referendum on EU membership to one just the Treaty, Iwantareferendum have in turn released an ICM poll of people who voted Lib Dem at the last election suggesting they'd prefer to be asked

...but they'd prefer one on the EU as a whole

The Liberal Democrats have commissioned a poll to defend their policy on the referendum issue. The Ipsos MORI poll found 54% of people supported a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union, with 27% opposed. Asked if people would prefer a referendum on the current EU treaty

Iwantareferendum Results

They aren't representative polls in a strict sense, but I though the results of the private referendums organised by iwantareferendum.com were worth a comment. Private referendums are rare creatures, not least because they are very expensive to carry out (the only really notable one prior to this

Two thirds think most MPs are lining their pockets

YouGov's monthly poll for the Telegraph has topline voting intention figures, with changes from the YouGov poll for the Economist a week ago, of CON 40%(nc), LAB 33%(-1), LDEM 16% (nc). The Economist poll was taken just after the Northern Rock nationalisation and suggested that, while