Sue Jameson on going to the polls
A year before the General Election, Labour and the Conservatives are almost neck and neck, according to a poll for Good Morning Britain and the Daily Mirror.
Politicians never take any notice of polls? That's what they always say, but I imagine they take more notice of the good ones while bravely dismissing the bad at least once a month in the privacy of their own bedrooms!
So what will they make of our poll, carried out with the Daily Mirror exactly a year before the General Election?
We asked people how they would vote in the General Election, with the following results:
Labour 34
Conservatives 33
UKIP 18
Lib Dems 8
Others 7
The interesting thing here is that one point lead for Labour. It has been this close in other recent polls but mostly there has been a consistent three to five point lead for Labour.
When we asked about the European elections coming up in two weeks the picture changes:
UKIP 31
Labour 28
Conservatives24
Lib Dems 7
So, it's no surprise to see UKIP leading the field but Ed Miliband really needs to come an even closer second (and gain the most seats in the locals) to show Labour can win a General Election.
The Tories won the Europeans last time in 2009 so, as an incumbent government, were pretty sure to fall down the polls but the Lib Dems as the only blatantly pro- European party will not want to fail badly at the polls.
Politics shouldn't be all about personalities but it would be very naive to say they don't play a part in peoples decisions.
Our poll will make David Cameron happy as he leads the results with 26 percent. Though Ed Miliband is only three points behind
However Nigel Farage has twice as many points on 14 compared to Nick Clegg
And when we asked about the most important issues facing the UK you can see why UKIP is gaining a lot of support, as 25% said " too much immigration". Though when you add together concerns about the economy and jobs that comes to 42%, which is what we would expect after such a long time in recession and recovery.
Nearly three quarters of those asked said immigration would affect how they voted.Over half those polled said they believed the economy was recovering - a belief the Conservatives will want to build on, waving their hands saying 'We did that!'
Polls aren't everything, but they can be very telling and , trust me, with a year to go to the election, there will be MANY more.
I'm starting to tick the days off on my calendar and I won't be the only one!