The latest Cabinet league table is above. And here’s a gaggle of observations about it:
- Osborne-a-go-go. It’s been an oscillatory start to the year. IDS was top of the league table in January, then Osborne in February, then IDS last month, and now Osborne again. But, for all the jostling, there’s nothing close about the latest positions. The Chancellor’s satisfaction rating has risen by 13 points since last month, and he’s now a full 10 points ahead of IDS. The Budget must have gone down well with party members.
- The Chancellor’s rise. In fact, Osborne’s rating of 87.9 is his best ever; higher than the 85.6 he scored in the aftermath of last year’s Budget. It’s an opportunity for me to update this graph showing his ratings across the past couple of years. (Click for a larger version.) You’ll see that he’s gained a full 80 points since May 2013, when the memory of the previous year’s omnishambles Budget still lingered. Now his rating surpasses even Boris’s.
- Cameron’s highest-ever rating. And it’s not just the Chancellor: David Cameron scores his highest rating and position of this Parliament too. His 71.5 is 11 points higher than what he achieved last month, and moves him from seventh to third.
- The return of May. Oh dear, will the positivity never end? One of the leitmotifs of the past year has been the decline of Theresa May. Last month, as Mark noted at the time, she rallied slightly. But now she’s back, good and proper. She’s gained 12 points and four places in the latest table.
- Giving Clegg a chance. No, the positivity will never stop. Even the Lib Dems are in on it. Two of their number, David Laws and Alistair Carmichael, move from negative to positive territory, whilst Nick Clegg has gained a whopping 17 points since last month. As some of our other survey results have shown, the election seems to bringing on an outbreak of lovely coalitious sentitment.