David Davis: 'more famous, less liked'

Despite his resignation and campaign against the controversial 42 Day detention plans, the good people over at Politics Home have cobbled together some stats that reveal David Davis's staunch rebellion has been less than successful in swaying the public mindset. Or, as they put it: 'a total failure.' Careful - don't go fence-sitting there, chaps.

Hold on a second - there has been one aspect of all this working in Davis's benefit. He's now far more well-known than he was before he embarked on his crusade. As for actually being popular? Well ... that's another matter entirely.

The poll results in question actually indicate one giant swathe of apathy on behalf of the public. Check out these snippets:

The politically balanced panel of 5000 regular voters have been asked every working day whether they have positive or negative feelings towards David Davis. On the day of his resignation, 16% of the panel had positive feelings towards him and 17% had a negative feeling, giving him a net approval rating of minus one.

And:

The other bad news for David Davis is that the number of people who oppose 42-day detention has remained largely unchanged. If anything, it has dropped since his resignation.

Civil liberties, then: officially deemed shrugworthy by the Great British Public.

Written by C J Davies on 9 Jul 2008 10:18 PM. Permalink