On Wales I saw this yesterday.

3 months since the last 'best Prime Minister poll' so we've got a new one! the one source of optimism for people who don't like seeing bloody Reform leading everything

https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/52729-who-would-be-the-best-prime-minister-august-2025

As the tweet says though, Starmer's lead on this metric, that he was previously strong on has narrowed significantly, not good for Labour if that's a trend with that much change in 3 months.

Also Corbyn is now included and does... interestingly, though better than I would have expected - Kemi really not having a good time of it.

Also somewhat related there's this which is Starmer against the two populists in how the three of them are perceived:

Mostly expected stuff from what we know of the three but gives some insight into the various claims about each one's character that public debates tend to assume, based off of public perception anyway.

What a surprise. Ed Davey leads in all head-to-heads but seems to have been left out of the next set of questions.

1 hour ago, Suedehead2 said:

What a surprise. Ed Davey leads in all head-to-heads but seems to have been left out of the next set of questions.

In fairness to YouGov, the final set is from a different survey from today that I saw when I glanced at their Twitter to get images for this one.

That YouGov survey is a bit off though, but I think it basically shows the state of British politics at the moment. People feel the pinch and they are fed up of paying more for less. They might not like Farage, but they'll vote for Reform as they are promising change.

All seems a bit flimsy to me. Will be a classic case of turkeys voting for Christmas.

I think that question is just always going to lead to the more bland dull individual scoring better as there are less detractors but obviously Starmer is becoming so unpopular that he’s now almost reaching levels of the more controversial people

People have finally realised Corbyn was stitched up by the establishment, while on the left people blamed him for Blojo's Brexshit. Now they don't blame him for it and he should have an easier time, espexially as the establishment id frothing at the mouth for far righr Farage, bur left wing Ciebyn was a step too far!!! Incredible.

If Corbyn can get the People's Party up and running, we might be seeing the end of the neolib, centrist Lab and Cons ... and maybe they'll combine into one giant, neolib, centrist party...

Still got the dumbos thinking Corbyn doesn't mean change, but establishmentarian Farage does lol

Edited August 14Aug 14 by Big Fat Sue

Westminster Voting Intention:

RFM: 33% (+2)

LAB: 18% (-1)

CON: 17% (-2)

LDM: 12% (=)

GRN: 10% (=)

SNP: 3% (=)

Via @FindoutnowUK, 20 Aug.

Changes w/ 13-14 Aug.

According to this poll Labour & the Tories combined barely are bigger than reform 🤷‍♂️

That’s two polls now that have had Labour on 18% through two diff pollsters so beginning to be a problem. I said awhile ago they’d go under 20%. Starmer has nothing much going for him and the results of Labour’s policies are having no positive impacts besides some comms guy claiming waiting lists are down 0.75% or something that probably isn’t even true if you looked into it properly

8 hours ago, Liam Sota said:

According to this poll Labour & the Tories combined barely are bigger than reform 🤷‍♂️

That’s two polls now that have had Labour on 18% through two diff pollsters so beginning to be a problem. I said awhile ago they’d go under 20%. Starmer has nothing much going for him and the results of Labour’s policies are having no positive impacts besides some comms guy claiming waiting lists are down 0.75% or something that probably isn’t even true if you looked into it properly

I mean, just like a lot of Reform's claims aren't true I guess? 🤷‍♂️

Think we all know where this is going, but we just end up repeating a cycle with Reform where they get in to power, realise they can't do a lot and we're back to square one.

14 hours ago, Rooney said:

I mean, just like a lot of Reform's claims aren't true I guess? 🤷‍♂️

Think we all know where this is going, but we just end up repeating a cycle with Reform where they get in to power, realise they can't do a lot and we're back to square one.

I think you need fresh people with fresh ideas as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome is not going to happen.

I mean I’m sure people would welcome fresh ideas if they had any ideas at all.

On 21/08/2025 at 12:39, Liam Sota said:

According to this poll Labour & the Tories combined barely are bigger than reform 🤷‍♂️

That’s two polls now that have had Labour on 18% through two diff pollsters so beginning to be a problem. I said awhile ago they’d go under 20%. Starmer has nothing much going for him and the results of Labour’s policies are having no positive impacts besides some comms guy claiming waiting lists are down 0.75% or something that probably isn’t even true if you looked into it properly

Like many polls, a simple projection from this poll has the Tories on 20 seats, 19 of which are in London or Scotland. The only other one is Leicester East, a 68% Asían (mostly Hindu) seat that was their single pickup in 2024.

It's obviously very dubious but it would be hilarious if the Tories' only non-London English seat was one that Labour won 67-24 in 2017.

1 hour ago, Liam Sota said:

I think you need fresh people with fresh ideas as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome is not going to happen.

I'm all for fresh ideas as long as they are tangible and workable. A lot of our problems are societable problems really. Reform getting in to power isn't going to stop food prices going up, mainly as the supply chain is knackered from global warming and we've got climate change deniers in power.

Yeah it’s dubious to an extent but it’s not an MRP, I wouldn’t expect accuracy on specific seats. Reform are a little too Tory-lite for me atm but if your choice is guaranteed failure and status quo with Tories/Labour or some fresh ideas that might work then it’s not a difficult choice and I think that’s why reform have the lead they do.

Food prices are high because we closed down our nuclear and import/buy everything from overseas

1 hour ago, Liam Sota said:

Yeah it’s dubious to an extent but it’s not an MRP, I wouldn’t expect accuracy on specific seats. Reform are a little too Tory-lite for me atm but if your choice is guaranteed failure and status quo with Tories/Labour or some fresh ideas that might work then it’s not a difficult choice and I think that’s why reform have the lead they do.

Food prices are high because we closed down our nuclear and import/buy everything from overseas

Food prices are high because of the supply and demand. You have really poor yields from crops due to climate change, hence why you see coffee and cocoa products increase dramatically. And obviously we restrict ourselves a lot with Brexit. The supply chain is weak at the moment and businesses have absorbed pretty much all the costs they are willing to.

Reform have the lead because are the protest vote. Secondly when you tell people they will increase the tax thresholds to £20k, I can see why a lot of people would want to vote for them. As always the people who influence and back Reform think of all their voters as useless idiots, their naivety enables people to make greater gains.

1 hour ago, Rooney said:

Food prices are high because of the supply and demand. You have really poor yields from crops due to climate change, hence why you see coffee and cocoa products increase dramatically. And obviously we restrict ourselves a lot with Brexit. The supply chain is weak at the moment and businesses have absorbed pretty much all the costs they are willing to.

Reform have the lead because are the protest vote. Secondly when you tell people they will increase the tax thresholds to £20k, I can see why a lot of people would want to vote for them. As always the people who influence and back Reform think of all their voters as useless idiots, their naivety enables people to make greater gains.

Inflation is normal and expected but the rate is extortionate in the UK because we ruined our nuclear and fumbled our oil. So now we import both at great cost and it increases costs in production and transport which ultimately adds to the price. Yes there are other factors too but that to be expected worldwide. The factors we can control are now out of our control and it leads to the UK having higher prices than most other places. Brexit being cited as the reason for everything being terrible is such a cop out in my opinion the whole reason Brexit was successful was because everything was already terrible.

Reform are nothing special but they made immigration their flagship issue and that’s enough for most people. The other policies barely matter to the average person.

14 minutes ago, Liam Sota said:

Inflation is normal and expected but the rate is extortionate in the UK because we ruined our nuclear and fumbled our oil. So now we import both at great cost and it increases costs in production and transport which ultimately adds to the price. Yes there are other factors too but that to be expected worldwide. The factors we can control are now out of our control and it leads to the UK having higher prices than most other places. Brexit being cited as the reason for everything being terrible is such a cop out in my opinion the whole reason Brexit was successful was because everything was already terrible.

Reform are nothing special but they made immigration their flagship issue and that’s enough for most people. The other policies barely matter to the average person.

Mate, I respect and value your differing thoughts on opinions but I literally work in the food industry. Brexit contributed to higher prices as companies had to employ staff to get around the red tape, which were embedded in to prices. Right now there is a global supply chain issue across most categories, which has stabilised a little bit but in certain supplies it has increased dramatically. In the UK and worldwide we have had poor yields for a couple of years, but demand is high so suppliers can put their prices up for the raw materials.

But isn't that also the whole point? Immigration is such a big issue, but the reality is not immigration, it's asylum seekers. Which of course, Brexit made it far easier for them to come across our country. The amount of cost on the issue is massive. It's why it's hilarious people kick off about foreign aid, when in reality it's used as a tool to prevent people coming to our country.

2 hours ago, Rooney said:

Mate, I respect and value your differing thoughts on opinions but I literally work in the food industry. Brexit contributed to higher prices as companies had to employ staff to get around the red tape, which were embedded in to prices. Right now there is a global supply chain issue across most categories, which has stabilised a little bit but in certain supplies it has increased dramatically. In the UK and worldwide we have had poor yields for a couple of years, but demand is high so suppliers can put their prices up for the raw materials.

But isn't that also the whole point? Immigration is such a big issue, but the reality is not immigration, it's asylum seekers. Which of course, Brexit made it far easier for them to come across our country. The amount of cost on the issue is massive. It's why it's hilarious people kick off about foreign aid, when in reality it's used as a tool to prevent people coming to our country.

I think we look at both issues very differently. Your view is very CEO margins I’m just looking at it all encompassing. No doubt the cost of food would be 10-20% cheaper without the added costs of electric and oil and theft which is out of control. The other stuff is smaller and wouldn’t be a problem. If your £100 shop was £106 it’s not the end of the world. If it’s £136 now it’s noticeable right.

Immigration isn’t just about asylum seekers at all. Right now that’s a hot topic. If your solution to gangs smuggling people across the channel is foreign aid then we are living on a diff planet. It would have no impact. And again claiming Brexit is somehow a solution is both ignoring Brexit happened primarily due to immigration and places like France and Ireland are having the exact same issues.

6 minutes ago, Liam Sota said:

I think we look at both issues very differently. Your view is very CEO margins I’m just looking at it all encompassing. No doubt the cost of food would be 10-20% cheaper without the added costs of electric and oil and theft which is out of control. The other stuff is smaller and wouldn’t be a problem. If your £100 shop was £106 it’s not the end of the world. If it’s £136 now it’s noticeable right.

Immigration isn’t just about asylum seekers at all. Right now that’s a hot topic. If your solution to gangs smuggling people across the channel is foreign aid then we are living on a diff planet. It would have no impact. And again claiming Brexit is somehow a solution is both ignoring Brexit happened primarily due to immigration and places like France and Ireland are having the exact same issues.

Go and show me the raw material price of cocoa in 2022 and what it is today. Thats not CEO’s profit greed, thats the commodity price. There is not enough of the product due to climate change, crop yields, so the value goes up, and our prices go up as a consequence.

And what are the solutions to the asylum issues? Oh yeah that’s strip our human rights away. Or more likely if we prevent war and suffering, we still asylum. And yes the current problem is indicative of Brexit in the U.K. and has indeed got worse because the U.K. and France relations were not collaborative, so France didn’t get a damn.

As alluded to, it matters little what the government actually does, while they're better than most of the alternatives, they are following a pretty important and inflexible reality for UK governments. As bad as things are for many, they will be so much worse if the wrong things are done - we saw that back in 2022 and with Brexit. There's so little room to maneuver within that framework.

Of course that's not the only framework, but voters must be very careful who they hand power over to. If they hand it over to those willing to scapegoat and demonise the vulnerable and the other, that's a solid path to authoritarian fascism for a generation and Reform can and will take us there if they are given the opportunity and the institutional backing.

It would be a consistent track record with British voters easily being manipulated and voting for the charming conman though.