Nine 1/2 Weeks

The latest poll for the Sunday Times, showing the Conservatives only two points ahead, will no doubt give David Cameron some sleepless nights.

The news follows reports of an already deepening sense of crisis in the Tory ranks at their failure to make progress, or even hold on to the lead they enjoyed throughout last year.

The electorate are a generous bunch, by and large, and will give incoming leaders the benefit of the doubt for much longer than politicians sometimes have a right to expect.

I suspect that since David Cameron was elected Tory leader, voters have been allowing him to settle in to the role, find his feet, get into his stride. No doubt they were expecting that, less than three months out from the General Election, he would have pulled together a strong team, with a clear sense of direction and well thought out policies. The narrowing of the Tory lead seems to reflect people's growing realisation that this isn't going to happen, and that there really is a gaping void at the heart of the new, slick, airbrushed Conservative operation.

The series of poster launches at the beginning of this year really was a disaster for Cameron. Vacuous, superficial and content-free, they lent themselves to ridicule - and ridicule the public did. Meanwhile, George Osborne continues to be the weakest link in the Conservative chain, at a time when recession and recovery are uppermost in people's minds and they want to feel confident in a future Chancellor of the Exchequer. Can anyone imagine Osborne in that role - no, I mean seriously?

The Conservatives have every reason to be worried about how the nine and a half weeks to 6 May are going to go.