Our last monthly survey sought to establish how much support there was among Party members for the main Coronavirus policy options.
It found 52 per cent backing the Government’s relatively new South Korea-type test-and-track plan; 31 per cent for a less restrictive Swedish-style lockdown, and 13 per cent for keeping the lockdown as it was.
Now we have a new version of that plan, with relaxed outdoor restrictions, and a tentative timetable towards greater normality. And almost nothing has changed – at least as far as our Party member panel is concerned.
Backing for the status quo ante is at nine per cent. Fifty four per cent of respondents think that the Government is proceeding “in the right speed and way”. And 33 per cent still want a looser lockdown delivered faster.
Our take is if Boris Johnson’s outline timetable isn’t delivered, the proportion wanting a Sweden-flavoured policy can only grow, especially as the broader economic realities begin to bite home.
How fast it would grow is another matter. The Prime Minister has a big election victory delivered less than six months ago under his belt, has delivered Brexit, and so has plenty of credit in the bank with Party members.
Yes, the launch of this new phase was very messy. Yes, there are lots of unanswered questions about the policy that should be answered. And, yes, the process of putting it together has been, ConHome hears, shambolic.
But that could doubtless have been said about much of government planning during World War Two. Our sense is that most voters understand that point very well.
The good news for the Prime Minister is that he has room and time to get all this right, at least as far as Party members are concerned – and voters too if the polls are right, and don’t turn suddenly.