By Tim Montgomerie
Follow Tim on Twitter
The latest YouGov survey for The Sun (PDF) confirms that the public have a very low view of the political class and its ability to lead Britain out of the economic mess.
Taking the bad news for the Tories and the Coalition first…
But if the two Eds think that's good news they should look at their own ratings….
As I blogged yesterday, the politics of the Autumn Statement look good for Cameron and Osborne – at least in the short-run – but voters are probably right to worry about the political class' ability to deal with the deficit. Boris is certainly no bright prospect on the horizon in this narrow but vital regard. His recent opposition to modest cuts in art funding was a worrying sign of a lack of fiscal courage.
In his column for The Telegraph – entitled 'Young lives are being ruined because of Britain's timid Treasury' – Fraser Nelson summarised the situation perfectly:
"Osborne recently observed that Barack Obama was re-elected after years of dismal economic progress, because he succeeded in blaming the other guys for the problems. His implication was that the Conservatives might get away with doing the same in 2015."
"Get away with doing the same". I fear that is indeed the calculation.