Polls apart?

Following on from yesterday’s theme of comparison I give you these two reports:

“Labour's opinion poll lead has been cut to only three points in the last month as the Tory pre-election campaign gains momentum, according to the results of this month's Guardian/ICM opinion poll published today.

With the expected date of the general election only 72 days away the poll results will alarm Labour election strategists who fear Conservatives could use the intensive "phoney war" campaigning to close the gap between the parties”

Source: Tories gain ground on Labour

“The detailed poll findings show that in spite of a modest recovery in Mr Blair's own personal ratings since the Iraq war his appeal is restricted to Labour's core vote.

Among the party faithful he is as popular as Mr Brown, with 80% of Labour voters seeing him as an asset in the coming election campaign and only 16% regarding him as a liability, giving him a net rating of plus 64 points.

But other party voters do not see him that way. Conservative voters give Mr Blair a net rating of minus 41 points and Liberal Democrats minus 14. In comparison Mr Brown is seen as a positive asset to the Labour party by Conservative voters, who give him a rating of plus 24, and Liberal Democrats, who rate him at a very healthy plus 43 points.”

Source: Blair's problem: floating voters prefer Brown