Politics

The terrorist attacks in Madrid last week have had an immediate impact on British public opinion, according to MORI's latest Political Monitor. Asked unprompted to name the most important issues facing Britain today, more of the public mention defence and terrorism (41%) than any other issue. This is the first time since March 2003, then at the height of the Iraq War, that defence/terrorism has been seen as the most important issues facing the country.

As part of its work in relation to the Draft Local Governance (Scotland) Bill, the Scottish Executive is currently undertaking a review of Councillors' remuneration. To this end, it has established a Councillors' Remuneration Progress Group charged with establishing future remuneration, among other issues. To help inform the deliberation of the Progress Group, Glasgow City Council has undertaken a programme of research among current Members. The research comprises three main components:

The majority of British people think that Space should be a neutral place with no military uses and believe the US is more interested in the military potential of space than putting a person on Mars, according to new research conducted by MORI. It also shows support for the missions such as Beagle 2 and finding life on other planets.

After more than 100 days as leader of the Conservative Party, half the British public say they do not think Michael Howard is ready to be Prime Minister. When asked the same question four months ago , 30% of the public agreed that Michael Howard was ready to be Prime Minister and 48% disagreed. MORI's latest findings show that now 31% think Howard is ready (up one point), and 51% think he is not (up three points).

Peter Snow, perhaps Britain's keenest poll watcher — and his super wife, CBC Bureau Chief Ann McMillan — were at the American Ambassador's President's Day reception last month. He wanted to know what in the world has happened to the polling fraternity and was MORI going to restart (sic) our regular series of monthly poll reports again now that we have an election looming (15 months and counting). I was surprised he's not hardwired to our website (although he says he is), and reminded him that our monthly poll record is still unbroken since it began in 1979, nearly 25 years ago and is there for all to see.

MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,990 adults aged 18+ at 194 sampling points across Great Britain. Fieldwork was conducted face-to-face on 12-16 February 2004. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population.

Tory Leader Michael Howard's worry on seeing the latest MORI/Financial Times Poll findings will be that he has so far failed to take the Tories any closer to an election victory than when he was first elected Leader last November. This is despite the high profile Howard has taken over the past three months and the heightened morale among Tories in the Houses of Parliament since he replaced Iain Duncan Smith.

The results of the fifth annual survey of Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) conducted by MORI Scotland highlights emerging trends in the way Members prefer to receive and access information. The survey maintains trends, and forms an important benchmark for business and organisations who want to monitor the effectiveness of their communications with the Scottish Parliament. Importantly, the latest survey allowed us to look at the views of Members in their second term, as well as those newly elected in May 2003.

MORI's latest Political Monitor shows that satisfaction with the way Tony Blair is doing his job as Prime Minister and with the Government generally has fallen since December last year. The Conservatives have also made gains in terms of voting intention, though Labour retains a narrow lead. However, it should be noted that fieldwork for the last Political Monitor in December was carried out immediately after the capture of Saddam Hussein, which provided a boost to the PM's approval ratings and Labour's voting intention share.