New ComRes Poll – Tories Close the Gap on Labour

There is a new ComRes poll published tonight for tomorrow’s Independent on Sunday/Sunday Mirror which follows the pattern of other recent polls with the Conservatives narrowing the gap with Labour:

              Conservative             37% (up 1%)

                                        Labour                     39% (down 1%)

                                        Lib Dem                    11% (down 1%) 

Ed Miliband is turning out to be a good leader of the Labour Party (Net -16%):
Agree              17%
Disagree          33%
Don’t know       50%
 
Nick Clegg is turning out to be a good leader of the Liberal Democrats (Net -23%):
Agree               26%
Disagree           49%
Don’t know        26%
 
David Cameron is turning out to be a good prime minister (Net -2%):
Agree               38%
Disagree           40%
Don’t know        21%

ComRes interviewed a random sample of 2,017 GB adults online between December 15-17, 2010.

Two Years Old Today

It was on 18 Dec 2008 that I embarked on blogging for the first time. Having seen lots of other blogs and being encouraged by friends who blogged, I found a format and launched with an article about the speculation surrounding a possible early General Election. I stated my view that Gordon Brown would not dare call an early election and that he would wait until the last possible time in Spring 2010.

Since then I have written almost 1,000 postings, mainly about politics (local and national) but also opinion polls, film reviews and defence issues. There have been over 3,000 comments and almost 370,000 hits in that time. On the busiest day for hits (27 Sep 09) there were 1,738 page views. The busiest month was May 2010 with 24,613 hits. The most read article was on Samoa deciding to switch to driving on the left with 10,447 hits. At the moment I am getting 500-900 hits per day.

There are times when finding something to write is a chore but mostly I find subjects that I feel motivated to comment on. Occasionally I have to restrain myself from writing on some issues, particularly when I disagree with the Coalition government nationally or our local coalition but generally I feel it is better to comment in an open and frank way when I am motivated to do so. It is great to hear from people who read what I write and in almost every instance they are friendly and share my love of debate. However, there are a small number of unpleasant commenters who prefer to hide behind anonymity. They usually damage their own arguments by their confrontational approach but it is mercifully rare that I have felt the need to block a comment.

I am surprised that some respected bloggers have decided to call it a day but understand the occasional frustrations and burdens that blogging brings. I am still enjoying my blog and very much expect to be here in two years time. Do keep reading and commenting, and most of all keep dropping me notes with useful information and suggestions!