Petrol, Pensions and Party Advantage
10 November 2000
Support for fuel blockades has fallen since the last wave of protests in early September, as much of the media has been assuming; but, as has been far less widely noted, the support still remains considerable. The public wants a reduction in the petrol tax, the majority were prepared to support further protests before Mr Brown's pre-budget statement, and half the country would still support it now.
NHS Spending and Tax Cuts
24 March 2000
If the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, had time to glance at the Guardian on the morning of Budget Day, perhaps as he ate the frugal breakfast the price of which he apparently had to borrow from a colleague, it might just have raised a smile. For there, in ICM's poll, the mass of the public were saying they wanted him to do very much what he was proposing to announce that he would do. Most of them wanted him to use any spare cash to help the Health Service, and more than half thought a rise in duty on tobacco was the most acceptable tax.