Pollster Anthony Wells has reviewed the polling evidence, all of which shows popular support for the death penalty everywhere in Britain, except in parliament.

A lot of readers are asking why the e-petition specifies child killers and cop killers. The reasons are two-fold, in the case of child killers some crimes are so abhorrent that society demands more than protection, it wants retribution. Myra Hindley and Ian Brady’s 13 minute tape of them sexually torturing 10 year-old Lesley Ann Downey, with the child’s endless screams and pleas for her mother, truly shocked a nation. Hindley and Brady tortured and killed five children for sexual kicks. Even after half-a-century of pampered imprisonment they proved beyond rehabilitation. In cases like theirs, where there is no doubt of guilt and after due process of the law, justice should not prevent retribution. Retribution is missing from the criminal justice system.

The Soham murderer, Ian Huntley and Milly Dowler’s killer Levi Bellfield, a serial killer, would both under this proposed legislation pay for their crimes with their own life. That is the wish of many victim’s families, in the words of Gemma Dowler they want “a life for a life”. So do the public…

When the public are asked about the death penalty the results have consistently shown a majority in favour, when they are asked specifically about child killers, the numbers change dramatically with a range of polls showing two-thirds to three-quarters in in favour. On this issue there is definitely a clear regressive majority in Britain.

It is a similar picture for cop killers, the public understands that the police put themselves in harm’s way on their behalf every day. If a criminal in the course of committing a crime kills a police officer it is invariably deliberate. Having the death penalty for cop killers will make criminals fear the consequences and give extra legislative protection to the police beyond a stab vest. Once again the public shows a two-thirds majority in favour of the death penalty for cop killers. Not because their lives are worth more than ours, it is because the police daily risk their lives to protect our lives.

The third common objection is that Britain is bound by treaties that prevent us implementing the death penalty. Some claim that the ECHR prevents us, actually the Covenant itself specifically exempts “a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law”, it is later protocols which were added on that prohibit the death penalty. The protocols can be of course de-ratified or Britain can withdraw from the ECHR. The e-petition calls on the Ministry of Justice to first review international commitments and prepare a legislative escape path before bringing forward substantive legislation. This is what a free and sovereign nation of laws does if parliament wishes to change course. 

The “Restore Justice” campaign website will be up and running by the end of the week, thousands have registered to support the campaign already. You can too, here.

It turns out other news is happening this week that doesn’t involve mobile phones. Guido thinks two polls in as many days that have shown half of the country are prepared to leave the EU would normally get more traction. This week the government forced a statutory instrument through Parliament, with the slimmest of majorities, that will see us giving more money through a £9.2 billion increase to the IMF, than we cut in the first round of spending cuts. The public is getting sick of it.

A YouGov@Cambridge/PoliticsHome poll poll showed that if there was an in/out referendum tomorrow 50% would vote to leave and just 33% to stay. Remarkably this is almost identical to yesterday’s 49%/25% Angus Reid poll. As Greece continues to burn money, Italy teeters on the brink and Ireland has its credit rating reduced to junk status, the public are finally waking up to the problem. Every cloud…

A poll by Survation for Channel 4 News has found 72% of the public do not believe that executives at News International were unaware of the new hacking allegations. As the nation wakes up to the confusion that the newspaper that most ardently supports our armed services was snooping on our dead servicemen, things aren’t looking good for anyone.

The country seems split on the BSkyB deal, with 48% now thinking News Corp are unfit to proceed with the deal, but that could the least of the worries. The magnificent Peter Oborne has given Cameron two barrels in the Telegraph:

“Until now it has been easy to argue that Mr Cameron was properly grounded with a decent set of values. Unfortunately, it is impossible to make that assertion any longer. He has made not one, but a long succession of chronic personal misjudgments…

So the Prime Minister is in a mess. To put the matter rather more graphically, he is in a sewer.”

Things are starting to turn for Cameron very rapidly and we’re yet to reach the bottom…

The Indy have a hilarious Comres poll in which 2,000 voters were shown pictures of various members of the Shadow Cabinet. Unsurprisingly the majority of the bland B-team were not recognised, but most damning is the facet that one in four people identified Ed as David. You might wonder what exactly he has been doing since September…

A Taxpayers’ Alliance and YouGov poll shows more than half the country would like to see an end to the controversial practice of public sector union officials being paid while they do union activity instead of working. As the unions don’t have to pay their staff and national organisers, they can spend the money raised through subs on political activity, like funding the Labour Party.

The TPA reckon that at least £67 million is being diverted from frontline services into the pockets of union officials. As Guido has been showing you over the last few months, these officials are up to no good. If the unions want staff they should pay for them out of union subs. Guido isn’t surprised the public are rejecting this absurd loophole.

UPDATE: Given this insight into the public mood, perhaps the Tories own taxpayer funded operation, the Parliamentary Resources Unit, might like to retract their amber warning to MPs over David Morris’ EDM calling for a ban:

Mehdi Hasan went into damage control mode over at the Guardian this morning, with a long piece that essentially boils down to “please don’t blame my book for Ed’s nosedive in the polls”. He goes on to offer helpful advice about how the struggling Leader of the Opposition might be able to up his game. But it’s a bit late to be trying to curry favour again. 

Miliband’s office deny suggestions that Shadow Cabinet members were told by Tom Baldwin not to attend the book launch on Tuesday. Guido’s sources denied any edict went out either on or off the record. Neil Kinnock pulling out as the speaker at the last moment was unfortunate. Could it be that the former unsuccessful leader of the Labour Party didn’t want to be seen to be endorsing the book about the so far unsuccessful current leader of the Labour party? Seems ungrateful since he got his party back.

Ban or no ban, it’s clear Team Ed are rather angry with their former cheerleaders-in-chief. And they have good cause to be. Take a look at the ICM/Guardian net approval ratings before and after the Mail on Sunday serialisation of the book. The latest Ipsos-Mori data confirms the ICM findings:

The book led the storm of bad publicity for Miliband in the weeks that saw the six point approval-rating drop. Despite what Hasan argues in his piece, the evidence is to the contrary. 

The local government campaigning experts the LibDems have lost every councillor in Manchester, control of Sheffield, and the decapitation of their council leaders across the north. They are 340 councillors down, with less than half of counts having declared. Labour are crowing abut gains in places they were already strong. Cleggy got a spanking and the first call for his resignation has come, yet the Tory vote seems to be holding.

North of the border the Sun will be claiming they won it, as Alex Salmond has come from behind in the polls to humiliate Miliband in his heartlands. With the SNP on course for a majority win, Scotland are an inch closer to having to work out how to fund their own bloated welfare state. If Miliband can’t win here, it’s bad news for him. Scottish Labour are in turmoil this morning and apparently raging at the simple assumption that the disillusioned LibDems would come flocking to Red Ed. Iain Gray, the Scottish leader, came within a hairs breadth of a scalping.

The AV result out at 9pm tonight is rumoured to be hammering for Yes.

In the final furlong, ComRes have the “No to AV” Campaign on 66% and the “Yes to AV” Campaign on 34%.

It’s going to be a long day…

As the anger grows over Andrew Marr’s audacity at paying to hide his own public interest story, while being paid to probe the lives of the rest of the political class, Guido thought he would gauge opinion:

Don’t forget we pay him £600,000 a year for the pleasure. No wonder he could afford the luxury of an injunction and to support a child that wasn’t even his.

Despite Westminster being abandoned, it has been a long political week, that has thrown up an interesting poll by Ipos-Mori. Political Betting report that the Tories are back up to 40%, level-pegging with Labour. Despite the NHS reforms apple cart being kicked over and Miliband constantly popping up all over the place making speeches, his lead is has disappeared. The continued dire LibDem percentage doesn’t bode well for the Yes campaign.

Guido wonders how far ahead Labour would be by now with David in charge…