A couple of days ago, I wondered aloud whether this was the week the honeymoon ended for the coalition government. A YouGov poll charting net approval seemed to suggest it was.
Now comes another survey and the Daily Mail is asking the same question: “After 100 days in No 10, is the honeymoon over for the coalition?”
This time it’s a Harris poll commissioned by the paper that is prompting the question. It shows that just 23 per cent of people think Britain is better off with a coalition, while only 37 per cent of people thought spending cuts should be imposed quickly, compared to 41 per cent who said they should be spread over the coming years.
Asked how they rate the coalition government’s performance so far, 57 per cent said “disappointing”. And asked to measure the achievements of four key players (David Cameron, Nick Clegg, George Osborne and Vince Cable), only in Cameron’s case did more respondents than not believe he had performed better than expected.
On voting intentions, respondents put the Conservatives on 29 per cent (down from 36 per cent at the election), just 1 point ahead of Labour. Lib Dem support, in line with other recent polls, was down at 12 per cent.