politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » ICM Phone poll sees Leave 4% ahead. A fortnight ago Remain was ahead by 10%
Like last night’s ORB phone poll, there’s been a significant shift to Leave, this time a 7% swing from Remain to Leave. What makes this poll very interesting is that ICM online poll has seen no movement whatsoever.
Today's price action on cable is very negative: a spike high forming a triple top and rejection above 1.47. Currently around 1.4550, but the chart portends further downside.
Vote Leave has been a bit chaotically organised so far. With 3 weeks to go I wonder if they can get their shit together a bit better. That might make a difference. 3 weeks is also plenty of time for events to happen - which as the weather continues to warm up (current rain excepted) means we're going to have 3 solid weeks of immigrants in boats an under lorries to generate news stories.
Surely the voting intention result (Con +5 and Con +4 in the two polls) provides reassurance that the result hasn't been skewed by Bank Holiday - ie voting intention looks about right - doesn't look as if Con position understated.
One swallow doesn’t make a summer, but it’s clearly worrying. Stock market’s already down a bit. Might be profit taking after recent small rises of course!
The 330,000 figure has killed Remain stone dead. There is no answer. Dave and George have spent many years talking about the negatives of high levels immigration, without explaining that their entire economic and financial strategy is dependent on it. I am not sure what else they could possibly have expected. If you keep telling the voters something is bad, then you can't blame voters when they take you at your word.
The 330,000 figure has killed Remain stone dead. There is no answer. Dave and George have spent many years talking about the negatives of high levels immigration, without explaining that their entire economic and financial strategy is dependent on it. I am not sure what else they could possibly have expected. If you keep telling the voters something is bad, then you can't blame voters when they believe you.
With just over three weeks to go I don't think Cameron intended to be in this position. Momentum is going in Leaves direction. People starting to think about how they will vote. Leave could edge this . The great escape could be game on
Cameron needs to come up with some serious fear-level shit, and fast.
In fact, he needs to go beyond fear, to terror.
When you have fired all your guns and run out of ammunition? If LEAVE do win and Project Fear run by the governing elite loses, we will be all the better for it.
Surely one thing we can now say is that it looks very unlikely that Remain is going to win by a big margin - which seemed very possible until yesterday.
Surely one thing we can now say is that it looks very unlikely that Remain is going to win by a big margin - which seemed very possible until yesterday.
Yes. The minimum for LEAVE looks fixed well above 40%, possibly 45%+.
Surely one thing we can now say is that it looks very unlikely that Remain is going to win by a big margin - which seemed very possible until yesterday.
It's closer than the Scottish referendum thats for sure.
Surely one thing we can now say is that it looks very unlikely that Remain is going to win by a big margin - which seemed very possible until yesterday.
Hmm, yes. I was really tempted to lay Remain 55-60 at 2.9something the other day but didn't in the end. Annoying.
While this polling is clearly big news, it would be good to revisit the very eloquent musings on a very difficult subject by Ms @Cyclefree at some point. It doesn't deserve to be tomorrow's chip paper so quickly.
King Cole, missed your news earlier. Hopefully it was an all-clear, in an envelope hand-delivered by Olivia Wilde, who gave you a celebratory lapdance.
The 330,000 figure has killed Remain stone dead. There is no answer. Dave and George have spent many years talking about the negatives of high levels immigration, without explaining that their entire economic and financial strategy is dependent on it. I am not sure what else they could possibly have expected. If you keep telling the voters something is bad, then you can't blame voters when they take you at your word.
I agree. What's worse is that the government - despite all its spin to the contrary (just like Lab before it) - can do absolutely bugger to bring that figure down, even if it wanted to. It is only going to keep on going up because - as Blair famously said whilst PM - we are seen as a 'haven for benefits'.
I think this campaign has brought it home to the electorate that the government is powerless to control its own borders vis a vis EU immigration. It still seems bonkers to me that we have no democratic control over it, and I've known about it for years. Now that the wider electorate have cottoned-on, there will likely be trouble.
It would not surprise me in the slightest if the sole issue of EU immigration led to Brexit.
As I said on the last thread, today is the first day I have felt that Brexit will actually happen. And that was before I saw these polls.
Immigration is the key......this vote is taking place right in the middle of migrant season coming from Libya. The whole thing can be conflated with any terrorist incident in the interim period. And we are likely to do shit at the Euros to boot.
While this polling is clearly big news, it would be good to revisit the very eloquent musings on a very difficult subject by Ms @Cyclefree at some point. It doesn't deserve to be tomorrow's chip paper so quickly.
The 330,000 figure has killed Remain stone dead. There is no answer. Dave and George have spent many years talking about the negatives of high levels immigration, without explaining that their entire economic and financial strategy is dependent on it. I am not sure what else they could possibly have expected. If you keep telling the voters something is bad, then you can't blame voters when they take you at your word.
Now, if Cameron and Osborne thought about this a year ago they would have increased the spending on the border force and insisted on an emergency brake on immigration.
Perhaps that is what the "Vow" will be a few days before referendum day? An emergency brake on EU immigration, rushed through by the EU?
While this polling is clearly big news, it would be good to revisit the very eloquent musings on a very difficult subject by Ms @Cyclefree at some point. It doesn't deserve to be tomorrow's chip paper so quickly.
I guess the one small chink of light for Remain is that even after a week of relentless focus on immigration things are still tight and there are enough undecided to change things. But it's very hard to see how they can regain the narrative. The media love immigration as a subject, too, because it is so visual and there are so many stories to tell. It's much harder to illustrate stories about the economy in an engaging way.
King Cole, missed your news earlier. Hopefully it was an all-clear, in an envelope hand-delivered by Olivia Wilde, who gave you a celebratory lapdance.
It was "an all clear". Regettably that’s where everything ended. Whether my blood pressure could have coped with the lap dance....... However, if it can be arranged, I’d give it a go!
The other point I've detected from the people I've discussed this with is that the leavers are just that much more motivated. Stayers are begrudgingly pragmatic, leavers are on a mission.
With just over three weeks to go I don't think Cameron intended to be in this position. Momentum is going in Leaves direction. People starting to think about how they will vote. Leave could edge this . The great escape could be game on
King Cole, missed your news earlier. Hopefully it was an all-clear, in an envelope hand-delivered by Olivia Wilde, who gave you a celebratory lapdance.
It was "an all clear". Regettably that’s where everything ended. Whether my blood pressure could have coped with the lap dance....... However, if it can be arranged, I’d give it a go!
I guess the one small chink of light for Remain is that even after a week of relentless focus on immigration things are still tight and there are enough undecided to change things. But it's very hard to see how they can regain the narrative. The media love immigration as a subject, too, because it is so visual and there are so many stories to tell. It's much harder to illustrate stories about the economy in an engaging way.
Well, there's this new (to me) thing about the EU-wide Border Force. If we vote Leave, that will mean EU Border Patrols in the Channel. That'll be a useful source of, um, discussion.
The 330,000 figure has killed Remain stone dead. There is no answer. Dave and George have spent many years talking about the negatives of high levels immigration, without explaining that their entire economic and financial strategy is dependent on it. I am not sure what else they could possibly have expected. If you keep telling the voters something is bad, then you can't blame voters when they take you at your word.
It is a killer because without leaving there is just no hope of doing anything at all about half of that figure. None, zilch, nada. Countries across E Europe with much much lower GDP's per head totalling 100M have the right to up sticks and all come here if they want. Now they won't all do that of course, but if Leave can weave a narrative that there is hope of making the "bastards" listen to the people on this after all these years, that "hope" is a powerful word, for those who've had their lives turned upside down by the sheer numbers arriving.
Macro economic models as stated by the IMF, Osborne, the Commission and anyone else count for nowt if on your micro level, you perceive your job's been undercut, you perceive your kid can't get into the primary school close by because it's full, or that the NHS dentist down the High St is oversubscribed.
Boats appearing in the Channel with migrants on board heading towards the coast of Kent is a deeply visceral image for an island nation's psyche and must've appeared in Remain's nightmare scenarios. Well, however small and insignificant of themselves it's happened now and it will be giving pause for thought in Downing St as well as Berlin, and Brussels.
I still think it's a "bank Holiday Poll" etc etc but Leave have found their Mojo here and it's still not quite over with three weeks to go. Who would've thought we'd get such a run for our money?
Cameron will need to turn it up to World War Eleven.
That is the trouble. With a volume scale going up to 10, Cameron has been running for 15 weeks at a 10 level. The voters have gone deaf. PS there is no 11.
King Cole, missed your news earlier. Hopefully it was an all-clear, in an envelope hand-delivered by Olivia Wilde, who gave you a celebratory lapdance.
It was "an all clear". Regettably that’s where everything ended. Whether my blood pressure could have coped with the lap dance....... However, if it can be arranged, I’d give it a go!
Cameron needs to come up with some serious fear-level shit, and fast.
In fact, he needs to go beyond fear, to terror.
No, he doesn't.
What Remain need to come up with is a way of conveying the EU vision as a desirable future.
A joyless superstate where Germany and the Netherlands have to pay for jobless Italy and Spain having the wrong exchange rate while France is on strike and sinking and the Muslim immigrants sexually assault women in swimming pools and at pop concerts? The EU is unloved because it is unlovable.
Cameron needs to come up with some serious fear-level shit, and fast.
In fact, he needs to go beyond fear, to terror.
No, he doesn't.
What Remain need to come up with is a way of conveying the EU vision as a desirable future.
In the immortal words of Max, of this parish: The Remain campaign has been shit because the EU is shit.
I've asked for years for somebody to give me a really positive case-study of the EU and of how wonderful it is. Nobody has ever done so.
It's illiberal. Unaccountable. Fussy. Nosey. Bullying (see Greece). Undemocratic. It started out as a project with very good intentions, but in a world where we as individuals demand choice and want power at our fingertips it has become a one-fits-all organisation with power at its centre, far away from the grasp of voters.
People are realising they can tell the man on the phone that they're planning to vote Leave, because rather than him thinking they're racist he'll now only think they're against the crappy way that David Cameron runs the country.
The chatterers won't remember, though, how they believed hook line and sinker the original story that leading Tory Leavers weren't going to criticise David Cameron's leadership of the government. Some of them even said he could stay in office even if Leave wins, so long as it doesn't get more than 55%. I jest not. Bwahaha!
Cameron needs to come up with some serious fear-level shit, and fast.
In fact, he needs to go beyond fear, to terror.
No, he doesn't.
What Remain need to come up with is a way of conveying the EU vision as a desirable future.
A joyless superstate where Germany and the Netherlands have to pay for jobless Italy and Spain having the wrong exchange rate while France is on strike and sinking and the Muslim immigrants sexually assault women in swimming pools and at pop concerts? The EU is unloved because it is unlovable.
Cameron needs to come up with some serious fear-level shit, and fast.
In fact, he needs to go beyond fear, to terror.
No, he doesn't.
What Remain need to come up with is a way of conveying the EU vision as a desirable future.
A joyless superstate where Germany and the Netherlands have to pay for jobless Italy and Spain having the wrong exchange rate while France is on strike and sinking and the Muslim immigrants sexually assault women in swimming pools and at pop concerts? The EU is unloved because it is unlovable.
Cameron needs to come up with some serious fear-level shit, and fast.
In fact, he needs to go beyond fear, to terror.
No, he doesn't.
What Remain need to come up with is a way of conveying the EU vision as a desirable future.
A joyless superstate where Germany and the Netherlands have to pay for jobless Italy and Spain having the wrong exchange rate while France is on strike and sinking and the Muslim immigrants sexually assault women in swimming pools and at pop concerts? The EU is unloved because it is unlovable.
I guess the one small chink of light for Remain is that even after a week of relentless focus on immigration things are still tight and there are enough undecided to change things. But it's very hard to see how they can regain the narrative. The media love immigration as a subject, too, because it is so visual and there are so many stories to tell. It's much harder to illustrate stories about the economy in an engaging way.
The 330,000 figure has killed Remain stone dead. There is no answer. Dave and George have spent many years talking about the negatives of high levels immigration, without explaining that their entire economic and financial strategy is dependent on it. I am not sure what else they could possibly have expected. If you keep telling the voters something is bad, then you can't blame voters when they take you at your word.
Now, if Cameron and Osborne thought about this a year ago they would have increased the spending on the border force and insisted on an emergency brake on immigration.
Perhaps that is what the "Vow" will be a few days before referendum day? An emergency brake on EU immigration, rushed through by the EU?
Which would prove the point that much much more was possible in the renegotiation from the off if only both sides had actually ever bothered to take "Leave" as a serious option. I'm going to scan the German press later for signs of brown lederhosen.....
Cameron needs to come up with some serious fear-level shit, and fast.
In fact, he needs to go beyond fear, to terror.
No, he doesn't.
What Remain need to come up with is a way of conveying the EU vision as a desirable future.
Which is impossible. So watch out for terror.
Now if only NATO could be associated with needless bureaucracy, lots of jollies, and enormous rates of immigration, and the EU could be associated with stepping in where others failed, and clearing up, and helping Britain out in times of trouble, etc.
Has anyone ever seen a "Help for Heroes" sticker and a pro-Remain one in the same car?
The 330,000 figure has killed Remain stone dead. There is no answer. Dave and George have spent many years talking about the negatives of high levels immigration, without explaining that their entire economic and financial strategy is dependent on it. I am not sure what else they could possibly have expected. If you keep telling the voters something is bad, then you can't blame voters when they take you at your word.
Now, if Cameron and Osborne thought about this a year ago they would have increased the spending on the border force and insisted on an emergency brake on immigration.
Perhaps that is what the "Vow" will be a few days before referendum day? An emergency brake on EU immigration, rushed through by the EU?
Which would prove the point that much much more was possible in the renegotiation from the off if only both sides had actually ever bothered to take "Leave" as a serious option. I'm going to scan the German press later for signs of brown lederhosen.....
Another £10bn more to fund for the EU, what is the problem for Germany? Perhaps Mrs Merkel will regret not helping the UK more with the renegotiation?
A shatteringly bad poll for Cameron ...... but he has only himself to blame. His personally undertaken EU so-called renegotiation was a complete joke, compounded by the way in which he then tried to take the electorate as fools by pretending he had achieved a great deal. The whole sorry saga was made all the worse when it became clear that his Government were unwilling and incapable of doing anything about controlling immigration levels after 6 years+ in office. He's finished!
US State Dept. issues travel warning for citizens planning to attend "large events" in Europe...
I'm off to Benidorm for a stag weekend on Friday. Even the headbangers from round here are telling me to be careful. Eastern European gangs preying on drunk people; locals selling dodgy drugs; ISIS trying to bomb the place; half naked Brits wanting a scrap.
US State Dept. issues travel warning for citizens planning to attend "large events" in Europe...
I'm off to Benidorm for a stag weekend on Friday. Even the headbangers from round here are telling me to be careful. Eastern European gangs preying on drunk people; locals selling dodgy drugs; ISIS trying to bomb the place; half naked Brits wanting a scrap.
A shatteringly bad poll for Cameron ...... but he has only himself to blame. His personally undertaken EU so-called renegotiation was a complete joke, compounded by the way in which he then tried to take the electorate as fools by pretending he had achieved a great deal. The whole sorry saga was made all the worse when it became clear that his Government were unwilling and incapable of doing anything about controlling immigration levels after 6 years+ in office. He's finished!
He's acted like a prat from beginning to end on the EU. He now faces the biggest foreign policy fiasco in living memory. Far worse than Suez.
A shatteringly bad poll for Cameron ...... but he has only himself to blame. His personally undertaken EU so-called renegotiation was a complete joke, compounded by the way in which he then tried to take the electorate as fools by pretending he had achieved a great deal. The whole sorry saga was made all the worse when it became clear that his Government were unwilling and incapable of doing anything about controlling immigration levels after 6 years+ in office. He's finished!
He's acted like a prat form beginning to end on the EU. He now faces the biggest foreign policy fiasco in living memory. Far worse than Suez.
I'm not sure there is anything which remain now can do... all of the 'arguements' have been done to death, and it's been very very poor on all sides.
Much like scottish independence, this is a gut choice not a head choice.
I think everyone expected the Leave campaign to be a bit shit.
What no-one expected was the might of the Establishment Machine to be full-on norovirus.
The Leave David was expecting the Remain Goliath. But Remain have actually sent their own David - Cameron - except he seems to have misplaced his sling-shot.....
I'm reversing my Wales "Brexit" position, though the subsample is small Wales clearly seems to favour "out" - or is at best too close to call - see page 10. This is reasonably consistent with main polls from Wales.
US State Dept. issues travel warning for citizens planning to attend "large events" in Europe...
I'm off to Benidorm for a stag weekend on Friday. Even the headbangers from round here are telling me to be careful. Eastern European gangs preying on drunk people; locals selling dodgy drugs; ISIS trying to bomb the place; half naked Brits wanting a scrap.
Sounds awesome!
Always wear clean underwear, your mum wouldn't want you to be found wanting.
A shatteringly bad poll for Cameron ...... but he has only himself to blame. His personally undertaken EU so-called renegotiation was a complete joke, compounded by the way in which he then tried to take the electorate as fools by pretending he had achieved a great deal. The whole sorry saga was made all the worse when it became clear that his Government were unwilling and incapable of doing anything about controlling immigration levels after 6 years+ in office. He's finished!
He's acted like a prat form beginning to end on the EU. He now faces the biggest foreign policy fiasco in living memory. Far worse than Suez.
Cough*Iraq*Cough
Blair's Iraq shit stayed in Iraq.
Cameron's EU shit has come knocking on our door...
I wanted to send my best wishes to @JackW and @MikeK for speedy recoveries. Also great news to hear that @OldKingCole has beaten cancer.
One or two polls don't make a result. I am naturally cautious and believe that Leave just need to keep up the message discipline and activity of the last few days. They also need to get the GOTV operation in fine form for the 23rd.
In terms of maritime border management I have just written a new blogpost here. It is, I acknowledge, not very sensationalist, but I believe based on reality. www.jamesmalcolm.com/migrants-in-the-english-channel
I guess the one small chink of light for Remain is that even after a week of relentless focus on immigration things are still tight and there are enough undecided to change things. But it's very hard to see how they can regain the narrative. The media love immigration as a subject, too, because it is so visual and there are so many stories to tell. It's much harder to illustrate stories about the economy in an engaging way.
It's never been in doubt for me. As soon as the 330,000 figure came out last week it looked like game over. As you could see from the coverage that figure got on all the TV channels and since then too, immigration is so televisual and there are always stories to tell. Throw in the fact no-one in the government has ever sought to make a positive case - despite the entire economic and fiscal policy depending on it - and no-one should be surprised by these polls and by the UK's withdrawal from the EU.
The real fun starts on 24th June. Cameron and Osborne will clearly have to go. That means a Tory leadership election. Then the Brexit deal has to be worked out against the backdrop of what is now basically a hung Parliament. I can't see how we can go much further than the autumn without a general election. Thanks to Corbyn, that should produce a new Tory majority and also a few UKIP MPs, which will spell the end of Corbyn, thankfully. The SNP will run specifically seeking a mandate for a new independence referendum.
In short, triangulating Dave and George will take the UK out of the EU and cause the break-up of the UK. But they may also hasten the Labour party coming to its senses.
Vote Leave has been a bit chaotically organised so far. With 3 weeks to go I wonder if they can get their shit together a bit better. That might make a difference. 3 weeks is also plenty of time for events to happen - which as the weather continues to warm up (current rain excepted) means we're going to have 3 solid weeks of immigrants in boats an under lorries to generate news stories.
Just a thought, perhaps Remain's campaign has been too orchestrated to the point that people are turned off. A recurring theme on here is how bad the Leave campaign has been, I've never bought into that. I think more and more of us are appreciating being given the opportunity to vote on non tribal lines, to look the establishment in the eye and tell them firmly to stop treating us like fools.
As you touch on, there is nothing stage managed about capsized dynghies but everyone sees it happening.
'Cameron needs to come up with some serious fear-level shit, and fast.'
That may be difficult.
'UK would do okay outside the European Union, David Cameron says! “Some people seem to say that really Britain couldn’t survive, couldn’t do okay outside the European Union. I don’t think that is true, Let’s be frank, Britain is an amazing country. We’ve got the fifth biggest economy in the world. We’re a top ten manufacturer. We’ve got incredibly strong financial services. The world wants to come and do business here. Look at the record of inward investment. Look at the leaders beating the path to our door to come and see what’s happening with this great country’s economy. .... Britain could survive outside the EU. Of course it could.”
David Cameron quoted from The Independent - 9th Nov 2015
I'm a fan of Cameron and applaud him for sticking to his promise of a referendum, and I also very much doubt that Brexit will win.
But the point is - and it pains me to say it - that he is probably finished as a credible PM post Ref. You can't offer a referendum, then promise a huge renegotiation and preface that renegotiation by stating you really don't want to leave.... and then tell the people that there will be catastrophe if we left.
It just isn't credible. And he's come across as a bullshitter.
If leaving the EU was so incredibly risky to our future then why the bloody hell did he offer a vote on leaving?
It's been very poorly done and I suspect it is game over for him and Osborne.
I wanted to send my best wishes to @JackW and @MikeK for speedy recoveries. Also great news to hear that @OldKingCole has beaten cancer.
One or two polls don't make a result. I am naturally cautious and believe that Leave just need to keep up the message discipline and activity of the last few days. They also need to get the GOTV operation in fine form for the 23rd.
In terms of maritime border management I have just written a new blogpost here. It is, I acknowledge, not very sensationalist, but I believe based on reality. www.jamesmalcolm.com/migrants-in-the-english-channel
Thanks. I will give your article a read. I enjoyed your previous one.
I'm a Labour remainer who does not want Corbyn as PM- he will ruin the Labour Parties chances for a generation of getting re-elected.
I actually think that many of the ideological Brexiteers would happily settle for a Brexit vote, even if that meant Corbyn became PM- which could become a distinct possibility if the Tory party descends into chaos following a Brexit vote.
After all a Corbyn Govt isn't for ever, whereas Brexit will almost certainly lead to the dismantling of the EU- a far greater prize for them I would suggest.
Question to Labour remainers/Tory Brexiteers: Would you swap a leave vote for Corbyn as PM?
No. A Corbyn premiership would be a waking nightmare.
I ask because people keep saying this is more important than a general election... I really don't see it that way and I suspect both sides would agree. Partly why I'm betting on low turnout.
If this ICM is repeated, Leave will be heading towards evens.
The 7-2 on Wales going won't last long either - from a tub of 2 million random red and blue tops what is the probability of picking out 16 blue ones and 25 red ones, and there being more blue ones than red ones in the pot...
US State Dept. issues travel warning for citizens planning to attend "large events" in Europe...
I'm off to Benidorm for a stag weekend on Friday. Even the headbangers from round here are telling me to be careful. Eastern European gangs preying on drunk people; locals selling dodgy drugs; ISIS trying to bomb the place; half naked Brits wanting a scrap.
Sounds awesome!
Always wear clean underwear, your mum wouldn't want you to be found wanting.
Reminds me of that lady who (it was said by my mother) never wore knickers, but always carried a pair in her bag just in case something untoward happened.
I've pulled Miss Cyclefree's piece and will republish it later on tonight
Aha! Just seen this. Thank you.
Unfortunate timing Miss Cyclefree, for such an excellent thread, but this is a poll that has profound implications on many things if it is repeated. Not least, political betting...
Comments
Does this mean that Fox and James whupped Salmond and Johnson on the BBC last week? Only 2m viewers, mind.
Also back to showing pensioners in favour of Out.
In fact, he needs to go beyond fear, to terror.
The Register
As poll shows #Brexit lead, Google has been demoting pro-Brexit views in its search results https://t.co/ZG7JpBcLY8 https://t.co/Ltjont4xG8
Agree that Leave is still value, very good value, at 3/1.
The more adjectives, the bigger the whopper.
4.1 for Leave is surely huge value, if the polls are close to accurate.
Cameron will need to turn it up to World War Eleven.
I think this campaign has brought it home to the electorate that the government is powerless to control its own borders vis a vis EU immigration. It still seems bonkers to me that we have no democratic control over it, and I've known about it for years. Now that the wider electorate have cottoned-on, there will likely be trouble.
It would not surprise me in the slightest if the sole issue of EU immigration led to Brexit.
Immigration is the key......this vote is taking place right in the middle of migrant season coming from Libya. The whole thing can be conflated with any terrorist incident in the interim period. And we are likely to do shit at the Euros to boot.
Most
All the original comments will still be there.
Perhaps that is what the "Vow" will be a few days before referendum day? An emergency brake on EU immigration, rushed through by the EU?
What Remain need to come up with is a way of conveying the EU vision as a desirable future.
However, if it can be arranged, I’d give it a go!
Macro economic models as stated by the IMF, Osborne, the Commission and anyone else count for nowt if on your micro level, you perceive your job's been undercut, you perceive your kid can't get into the primary school close by because it's full, or that the NHS dentist down the High St is oversubscribed.
Boats appearing in the Channel with migrants on board heading towards the coast of Kent is a deeply visceral image for an island nation's psyche and must've appeared in Remain's nightmare scenarios. Well, however small and insignificant of themselves it's happened now and it will be giving pause for thought in Downing St as well as Berlin, and Brussels.
I still think it's a "bank Holiday Poll" etc etc but Leave have found their Mojo here and it's still not quite over with three weeks to go. Who would've thought we'd get such a run for our money?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NjTE2vpMA8
I've asked for years for somebody to give me a really positive case-study of the EU and of how wonderful it is. Nobody has ever done so.
It's illiberal. Unaccountable. Fussy. Nosey. Bullying (see Greece). Undemocratic. It started out as a project with very good intentions, but in a world where we as individuals demand choice and want power at our fingertips it has become a one-fits-all organisation with power at its centre, far away from the grasp of voters.
The chatterers won't remember, though, how they believed hook line and sinker the original story that leading Tory Leavers weren't going to criticise David Cameron's leadership of the government. Some of them even said he could stay in office even if Leave wins, so long as it doesn't get more than 55%. I jest not. Bwahaha!
I also think the imagery of immigration is just so powerful as you allude to.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07ggk4g
I saw some of it.
They had agreed that the difference between the online and telephone polling was largely due to the number of graduates in the samples.
There was also discussion about the right number of graduates to include which adjusted for turnout was about 40%.
ConRes had done a lot of work on backward predicting general election results by adjusting each constituency for wealth and turnout.
The polling companies were all loooking to adjust their samples for the number of graduates and turnout.
This could explain some of the change in the latest telephone poll.
Now if only NATO could be associated with needless bureaucracy, lots of jollies, and enormous rates of immigration, and the EU could be associated with stepping in where others failed, and clearing up, and helping Britain out in times of trouble, etc.
Has anyone ever seen a "Help for Heroes" sticker and a pro-Remain one in the same car?
Much like scottish independence, this is a gut choice not a head choice.
His personally undertaken EU so-called renegotiation was a complete joke, compounded by the way in which he then tried to take the electorate as fools by pretending he had achieved a great deal.
The whole sorry saga was made all the worse when it became clear that his Government were unwilling and incapable of doing anything about controlling immigration levels after 6 years+ in office.
He's finished!
Would you swap a leave vote for Corbyn as PM?
Day 1: 4% swing to Leave
Day 2: 7% swing to Leave.
Anyone want to guess what the swing will be on day 22 of Mike's holiday?
Sounds awesome!
@AndrewSparrow: Sterling falls after Guardian/ICM poll shows rise in support for Brexit - https://t.co/BEORYr0wHt
The EU is the establishment of the establishment, so far removed from the man in the street.
There's nothing more disliked than an impotent but also all powerful body.
What no-one expected was the might of the Establishment Machine to be full-on norovirus.
The Leave David was expecting the Remain Goliath. But Remain have actually sent their own David - Cameron - except he seems to have misplaced his sling-shot.....
I'm reversing my Wales "Brexit" position, though the subsample is small Wales clearly seems to favour "out" - or is at best too close to call - see page 10. This is reasonably consistent with main polls from Wales.
https://sports.ladbrokes.com/en-gb/betting/politics/british/eu-referendum/uk-european-referendum/220800266/
Wales Brexit best price 7-2.
For full disclosure I'm now level Wales Remain with the profit on Wales Brexit.
Cameron's EU shit has come knocking on our door...
If this ICM is repeated, Leave will be heading towards evens.
I wanted to send my best wishes to @JackW and @MikeK for speedy recoveries. Also great news to hear that @OldKingCole has beaten cancer.
One or two polls don't make a result. I am naturally cautious and believe that Leave just need to keep up the message discipline and activity of the last few days. They also need to get the GOTV operation in fine form for the 23rd.
In terms of maritime border management I have just written a new blogpost here. It is, I acknowledge, not very sensationalist, but I believe based on reality. www.jamesmalcolm.com/migrants-in-the-english-channel
The real fun starts on 24th June. Cameron and Osborne will clearly have to go. That means a Tory leadership election. Then the Brexit deal has to be worked out against the backdrop of what is now basically a hung Parliament. I can't see how we can go much further than the autumn without a general election. Thanks to Corbyn, that should produce a new Tory majority and also a few UKIP MPs, which will spell the end of Corbyn, thankfully. The SNP will run specifically seeking a mandate for a new independence referendum.
In short, triangulating Dave and George will take the UK out of the EU and cause the break-up of the UK. But they may also hasten the Labour party coming to its senses.
As you touch on, there is nothing stage managed about capsized dynghies but everyone sees it happening.
Events and all that......
'Cameron needs to come up with some serious fear-level shit, and fast.'
That may be difficult.
'UK would do okay outside the European Union, David Cameron says!
“Some people seem to say that really Britain couldn’t survive, couldn’t do okay outside the European Union.
I don’t think that is true,
Let’s be frank, Britain is an amazing country.
We’ve got the fifth biggest economy in the world.
We’re a top ten manufacturer.
We’ve got incredibly strong financial services.
The world wants to come and do business here.
Look at the record of inward investment.
Look at the leaders beating the path to our door to come and see what’s happening with this great country’s economy.
.... Britain could survive outside the EU. Of course it could.”
David Cameron quoted from The Independent - 9th Nov 2015
ICM is the NEW Gold Standard!
But the point is - and it pains me to say it - that he is probably finished as a credible PM post Ref. You can't offer a referendum, then promise a huge renegotiation and preface that renegotiation by stating you really don't want to leave.... and then tell the people that there will be catastrophe if we left.
It just isn't credible. And he's come across as a bullshitter.
If leaving the EU was so incredibly risky to our future then why the bloody hell did he offer a vote on leaving?
It's been very poorly done and I suspect it is game over for him and Osborne.
I actually think that many of the ideological Brexiteers would happily settle for a Brexit vote, even if that meant Corbyn became PM- which could become a distinct possibility if the Tory party descends into chaos following a Brexit vote.
After all a Corbyn Govt isn't for ever, whereas Brexit will almost certainly lead to the dismantling of the EU- a far greater prize for them I would suggest.
I was leaning towards Remain for economic reasons, but I'm close to wanting to just give 'the man' a good kicking, as it's what they all deserve.
It is not 78% !