Posted on 08/11/2007 7:53:17 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LONDON (AFP) - Britain's ruling Labour Party under new Prime Minister Gordon Brown is enjoying its biggest ratings lead since the divisive 2003 Iraq war, an opinion poll published Sunday said.
Labour is ten points ahead of the main opposition Conservatives, taking it to heights of popularity not recorded by YouGov since November 2002, according to their poll for the Sunday Times.
Many commentators say Iraq soured the final years of Tony Blair's premiership and, since taking over on June 27, Brown has seemed much cooler on the issue, appointing some anti-war ministers including former UN deputy secretary general Mark Malloch Brown.
The poll puts Labour at 42 percent, up two points from one month ago, and the Conservatives at 32 percent, down one point.
Following his first summit as prime minister with US President George W. Bush last month, 73 percent think Brown is less close to Bush than Blair, dubbed the president's "poodle" by some British papers.
And 74 percent of people say British troops should be brought home from Iraq immediately or over the next year, according to the poll.
On the domestic front, Brown's "bounce" since coming into office is also continuing, the poll suggests.
He has been praised in the media for his handling of serious flooding and an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in southern England in the last month.
By contrast, Conservative leader David Cameron is facing growing discontent in his own ranks amid claims that his party has failed to come up with policies which will threaten the new premier.
Their differing fortunes are reflected in the poll -- 65 percent say Brown is doing a good job, compared with 29 percent for Cameron.
Brown's current popularity has led to speculation that he could call a general election as early as October.
YouGov interviewed 1,966 electors online on August 9-10.
A second poll, conducted by ICM for the Sunday Mirror, gave Labour 39 percent support and the Conservatives 33 percent.
A total of 82 percent said Brown had handled the foot and mouth scare very or quite well and his overall satisfaction rating was 59 percent.
The paper did not give details of how many people were questioned for the poll or when.
Gordon Brown (C) meets British troops in Baghdad in Iraq, during a visit to the region, June 2007. The Ministry of Defence has put updated guidelines in place to prevent military personnel from publicly discussing their experiences in the armed forces(AFP/Pool/File/Andrew Parsons)
Yes, they were heartily sick of the smoke-and-mirrors razzle-dazzle offered by Blair.
When Brown shows up in rumpled clothes, and says there may be no good solution to the problem, everyone considers this a refreshing change.
will Britain ever turn Conservative again, or are they a lost cause?
They never were conservative, in our sense. Too many toffs.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
How exactly did he "handle" these events? Give an "I feel your pain" press conference?
I’m afraid Britain has been emasculated and is now officially a wuss nation. Socialism does that to a people. Oh, there are a handful of holdouts who still revere tradition and values and duty and honor. Unfortunately, they are a dying breed. Britain will soon be under the thumb of its islamic masters. So sad. So very, very sad.
This isn’t complicated. The Tories have lost their way, and stand for nothing.
The Tories became the anti-war party in order to oppose Blair, idiotically.
Now Brown is getting out of Iraq...leaving the Tories with absolutely no platform whatsoever.
It was brain-dead and unprincipled from the get-go, and now they will be thrown out into the street because of it.
“The Tories became the anti-war party in order to oppose Blair”
No they didn’t. Sorry, but this just never happened. The Conservatives have consistently supported the British campaigns in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Actually, a much greater proportion of the Conservative party MPs voted in favour of the Iraq invasion than Blair’s own party. And that has been consistently the case ever since.
I’m really not sure what it is you are thinking of.
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