TORIES ON TOP

by RAY FLEMING
YESTERDAY'S Guardian/ICM survey of Britons' voting intentions returned the Conservative party to the 39 per cent level of support it had before the recent party conference season and relegated Labour to a 29 per cent share, the lowest it has recorded since 1987, shortly before Margaret Thatcher won her third term of office. It is one of vagaries of British politics, however, that an election outcome mirroring yesterday's poll would probably not do more than make the Conservatives the largest party in a hung parliament. A ten point lead over Labour is just about where the Conservatives should expect to be given the disarray in Mr Blair's party and the increasingly bad news from Iraq. It has taken a long time for the disappointment of Labour supporters to be reflected in the polls and the party will be looking towards the impending Queen's Speech on future legislation for a recovery of some lost ground. In the meantime Mr Cameron and his close colleagues may be wondering whether at least part of their gain of three percentage points is attributable to last week's report of a policy working group set up by Michael Howard from whose tax cutting proposals they quickly dissociated themselves. The Liberal Democrats remain on 22 per cent. It will be interesting to see whether the decision of the Liberal-controlled Richmond council in London to double street parking fees for 4x4s and other gas-guzzlers will impinge on national politics.