The first poll on domestic political issues since the war started shows Tony Blair's satisfaction ratings rising to their highest level since June 2002. The latest MORI Political Monitor, with interviews carried out between 20-24 March, finds the proportion satisfied with his performance as Prime Minister rising from 31% to 43%, with those dissatisfied falling from 61% to 48%. That means his net score — those satisfied minus dissatisfied — has risen from minus 30 to minus 5. After a month in February when his rating among his own party supporters fell to its lowest ever, Labour voters are now three times more likely to be satisfied with his performance than dissatisfied.
A survey by MORI on behalf of the Greater London Authority reveals that half of Londoners (50%) support the congestion charge scheme with one in three (34%) against it. Before the scheme started similar proportions supported and opposed the scheme. Two-thirds (67%) believe it has been effective in reducing traffic congestion, while one in five (20%) do not.
The final polls to be published before the war in Iraq started, conducted last weekend, all found a shift in public opinion in favour of British involvement in the war but still found a majority disapproving, both of military action and of Tony Blair's handling of the Iraq crisis.
Few political issues so dominate the public consciousness as the Iraq crisis is doing at the moment: 55% of the public named defence/foreign affairs as the single most important issue facing the country in the last MORI Political Monitor, and a further 7% chose nuclear weapons or disarmament. The National Health Service, the public's perennial obsession, is now of primary concern only to 6% - almost unprecedentedly, not even in the top three.
Tony Blair and Iain Duncan Smith are facing a crisis of confidence with the British public, with both recording further falls in their satisfaction ratings.
