UNISONActive is an unofficial blog produced by UNISON activists for UNISON activists. Bringing news, briefings and events from a progressive left perspective.

Tuesday 25 January 2011

People turning against ConDems but big business pals still on board

Today's YouGov/Sun voting intentions are CON 37%, LAB 42%, LDEM 11%. Still bang in line with the five point Labour lead YouGov have been showing of late. The 11% for the Liberal Democrats is, incidentally, the highest YouGov have shown them at since early December but a recent poll also shows that a third of LibDem votes would now vote Labour.

Meanwhile on Sunday, the the Sunday Torygraph had a front page article highlighting the growing opposition to the ConDem Government plans to sell off our Forests, with a poll showing 75% of the public oppose the sale. http://country-standard.blogspot.com/2011/01/75-of-public-and-daily-telegraph-oppose.html

Add this to the figures last week showing opposition to the government's NHS cuts and privatisation - along with other polls showing that people believe the cuts are unfair - and you see a tide shifting against the Tories now that people are spotting what they are up to.

However, a massive 89 per cent of UK business leaders think that the Government’s policies will improve the state of the economy (Ipsos Mori) and although worried about consumer spending, they are predicting growth! A ComRes poll for ITV News showed that consumer spending was set to hit the buffers in 2011 http://www.comres.co.uk/cutsindex14jan11.aspx so it is a tad puzzling as to why captains of industry are so optimistic.

Could it be their hope that the government will cut back on regulation (they say that in the poll) and let them run free to exploit while they make big bucks? They certainly have pals signalling that intention with the Guardian reporting that Cameron and Osborne secretly tried and failed to kill tougher European rules on bankers' bonuses http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/24/curb-the-banks-government-propped-them-up

The signs are that voters are beginning to wake up to what this is all about and such a gulf between the experience of ordinary people and the greed of the fat cats is just waiting to be exploited by real political direction and leadership.

Step in Ed Balls. Will he?