Skipper

Everyone has been saying Nick Clegg and his party will pay a huge political price for its support for the Tories and we now begin to see its extent. The latest Ipsos Mori poll, published in The Guardian yesterday showed Labour on 39%(no change), Conservatives on 38% (up 2) and the Lib Dems on 11% (three down). Some polls have placed the junior coalition partner even lower, but 11% is bad enough, when it is remembered their election share was more than twice that figure. Significant too that the Tories seem to have gained what their partners have lost since the last poll was taken.

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne comments on sinking ratings as follows:

"I've always thought we would have two years of immense unpopularity. I don't know any government anywhere in the world that is cutting the deficit without becoming more unpopular."

So all this was expected? I doubt it and suspect the party leaders are getting really worried. Along with Labour's leading lights too as Ed Miliband seems not to be cutting it just yet. His approval rating is a miserly +1: only Foot, Hague and Clegg have done as badly after their first three months; even Duncan Smith and Michael Howard did better. Worse,only 26% thought Ed a 'capable leader'; 64% thought him 'inexperienced'; and 35% thought him 'out of touch' with ordinary people. It won't be long at this rate until the old familiar plots are formulated to find someone else. As the only likely usurper is Ede's brother David, I suspect he's safe until the summer at least.

Moreover, we are still in early days- the next election, if things run according to the coalition plan is over four years away and reputations, both party and individual, can soar and plummet a great deal by then. But it's ironic that the party which failed to deliver its expected easy victory and was consequently forced into a coalition, is almost doing as well as if they had achieved that easy, predicted victory.