MORI's London Mayoral election day survey, released yesterday at 10:40pm on ITN (Independent Television News), correctly predicted that Ken Livingstone would be returned as Mayor of London.
Eight in 10 (80%) of the adult British population say they are in favour of ID cards, and slightly more (83%) say they would be happy to carry the card at all times — according to a MORI survey carried out for specialist IT consultancy Detica [note 1].
MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,863 adults aged 18+ at 192 sampling points across Great Britain. Fieldwork was conducted face-to-face on 27 May-1 June 2004. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population.
MORI's latest Political Monitor results show that Labour (35%) retain a small lead over the Conservatives (34%) in terms of voting intentions at an immediate General Election, among those who say they are "absolutely certain to vote". In the run-up to the local, Mayoral and European elections on June 10th, the main issues seen to be facing Britain are Defence/foreign affairs (47%), NHS (34%) and race relations/immigration (30%). Europe is mentioned by 17% of the public (in 7th place). In contrast, during the last European Parliament elections in June 1999, Europe was then seen by the public as the most important issue facing the country (mentioned by 37% of the public), followed by NHS (35%) and education (29%).
Received political wisdom is that modern governments, especially the present British government, are and will be judged by the public on whether they have "delivered". So "Has New Labour delivered?" will, it is suggested, be the key question on which the outcome of the next general election may turn (assuming, of course, that the opposition has regained a sufficient degree of political credibility for anybody to take them seriously as an alternative). Sir Robert Worcester analyses.
One year to go until the next General Election. May 5, 2005, is my odds-on bet for the date of the next election, which given the rules, it is likely to be called on Thursday, 7 April. There are two other anniversaries that have been celebrated (?) in the past few days: Tony Blair's 7th year in office, and the invasion of Iraq a year ago.
MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,947 adults aged 18+ at 196 sampling points across Great Britain. Fieldwork was conducted face-to-face on 15-19 April 2004. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population.
