Covering the IEA’s new report on the free speech-attacking Online Harms Bill (OHB) this morning, Guido noted “If the government wants to get the Boris show back on the road, and reassure Tory members and MPs that this government is worth fighting for – while saving at least £2.5 billion – scrapping swathes of this big-state bill could not be a more obvious starting point.” New polling released today, coinciding with the IEA’s report, shows this was on the money…
The poll of 982 Tory Party members, conducted by YouGov on behalf of the Legal to Type, Legal to Say campaign, is crystal clear that the government is utterly barking up the wrong tree here. When asked “Do you think people should or should not be able to post content online that is legal, but that some people might find offensive or harmful?”, as the OHB aims to prevent, 79% of members said people should be able to do so.
Asked whether they believe there should be a discrepancy between what is legal to say online and offline, as Lord Frost today points out the OHB will create, again 79% say “anything that is legal to say in public should be legal to say online”. Just 17% believe “there are some things that are legal to say in person, which should not be legal to say online”.
Asked whether they trust Ofcom to be impartial, 51% of members said either not very much or not at all, versus 38% who answered a great deal or a fair amount.
Asked to rank issues relating to online safety by priority for the government, 73% agreed that illegal content such as child sexual abuse is important, followed by 58% for terrorism materials and 41% for illegal online abuse such as stalking, racial abuse and harassment. Just 3% said the government should prioritise “comments which are offensive but do not break any laws”.
While 81% of Tory members trust Boris Johnson to care about freedom of speech, by contrast 80% do not trust social media companies – the people who will be given much greater moderating responsibilities after the OHB comes into force – to protect it. This all seems cut and dry. It will be very difficult for the PM to point to a change of thinking and strategy over the coming months if the anti-free speech provisions in the Online Harms Bill are not dropped…
By a 19 point margin Tory members want their MPs to back Boris according to YouGov. This follows major Tory donors coming out and saying they too back Boris. MPs will have to add this to their calculations. Downing Street will be pleased to see both donors and members coming out in support…
UPDATE: ConservativeHome’s snap survey of party members shows 55% think MPs should vote to remove Boris, with 41% supporting him and 3% claiming they don’t know. Not quite as easy reading for No.10. Last month those figures were 41%, 53% and six% respectively…
What is the counter-inflationary strategy of the UK government?
— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) May 31, 2022
Over half of the 2,000 of Guido’s co-conspirators responding to a tweeted poll think the government is just collectively crossing its fingers and hoping for the best. Just under 15% think the government is or will tighten monetary conditions. Guido has asked HM Treasury what the official policy on countering inflation is exactly…
The latest Conservative Home members’ poll of the Cabinet is out, and Boris is back as the least popular cabinet member for the first time since December, down 21.6% on last month. He might find some relief in that he’s less unpopular than his lowest-ever ratings five months ago: -15 versus -33.8% then…
Rishi’s £15 billion handout and windfall tax have somehow revived him back into positive figures, though unsurprisingly for a poll of Tory members he’s only on net 11.7%.
Ben Wallace remains in first place, with Liz Truss slipping down to fourth at the expense of Nadhim Zahawi and Anne-Marie Trevelyan. Priti is down over 19 points…
Margin of error territory as the public no longer perceives Sir Keir as “Mr Rules”. One poll so far so will be intrigued to see if this is a trend…
With Sir Keir expected to make a statement on Beergate at 4pm today, Guido asked co-conspirators how they’d advise Starmer if they were by his side in the LOTO office over the weekend. Resign right away? Wait for the police investigation? Tough it out…?
Thousands voted, and it turns out readers are divided. Half (49.6%) think Starmer should resign at the podium today – given he called for Boris’s resignation the moment the police launched their inquiry – 28.9% think he should resign only if fined, with a further 21.5% saying he should tough it out regardless of the police outcome. Guido’s own view is that the latter choice is politically impossible given his approach to Partygate. Demanding Boris and Rishi resign over a birthday cake set the bar incredibly high for his own behaviour – a bar he hasn’t met. If he’s not going to resign today, then his only real option is to promise he’ll go if Durham Police whack him with a fine…
