Thursday 1 October 2009

Newspaper Endorsements!

As a Journalism Student (yes me a student again at my age!) I was interested to read the YouGov poll regarding the degree of importance people attached to the endorsement of a political party by a major newspaper. Of those polled 61% said the endorsement was important or very important, 36% said it was not very important or not important at all, 4% didn't know (yes that's 101% but figures are rounded!).

The poll also found 63% agreed with the statement that Labour has lost its way. However, less encouraging for the Tories, only 29% agreed with The Sun's published view that they were backing the Tories because 'the Conservative leadership can put the 'great' back into Great Britain'

You can see the full research here

Support for UKIP is up

The traditional assumption that support for political parties other than the main three disappears at a general election has been challenged by private polling seen by the BBC.

Support for Labour is languishing at 20%, while the Lib Dems are down from 21% to 18%. But support for "others" - UKIP, the Green Party, the BNP and other small parties - has doubled, from 9% to 18%.

The polling suggests a surge in support for UKIP, in particular. Figures show support for UKIP is at 6%, up from 1% in summer last year who said they would vote for the party in a general election.

Read the full article here.