Budget 2010: Three quarters of voters back spending cuts not tax rises – Guardian/ICM

[ed miliband]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/21/budget-2010-guardian-icm-poll


63%, think that cuts will hurt the poor the most – only 29% agree with the government's claim that the pain will be shared.

... I suppose this is good, although I think 63% is lower than I expected.

But:


60%, say they trust the government to make the right decisions on the economy and spending.


While 59% agree with cuts, 36% disagree.


nearly two-thirds of Labour voters – 64% – also agree that the priority should be cuts rather than tax hikes.

and quite interestingly:


Tory voters are actually marginally keener on tax rises than Liberal Democrats, but opposition is strong across all parties.

Now while this must all be taken with a pinch of salt (a large pinch at that), is anyone else a bit taken aback? I suppose the article is right in saying that opposition might increase once the pain is felt.

[Jolly Red Giant]

This is nothing new - the media manipulate opinion polls all the time to give the result they want.

For years they ran opinion polls in Ireland asking do you support spending cuts or tax rises - the result was always 80-20 in favour of spending cuts. They then asked should the government cut health and education spending and the answer was always 80-20 against. Needless to say, after a while they stopped reporting the second question - and of course they never asked 'should the wealthy pay for the crisis' or 'do you support a wealth tax for millionaires' or anything of that kind.