Special military operation, what is it good for?
My expectation was that Russia’s extension of their invasion of Ukraine would lead to a bit of a polling boost for the government based on historical precedent and the fact Boris Johnson is actually doing something right and competent yet that really hasn’t materialised, so why is that?
Looking at that polling from Ipsos we can see that compared to past handling of foreign affairs this government is towards the back of the field, so that explains why there hasn’t been much of a boost in the polls. The wider problems of the government cannot be masked by this one issue.
It isn’t all doom and gloom for the government, David Cameron’s intervention in Libya was rated slightly worse than the handling of the Ukraine conflagration but it didn’t stop David Cameron increasing the Tory share of the vote and MPs which allowed him to win the next general election.
Having just come back from my local Sainsbury’s and seen the price of petrol and diesel increasing even more, I think that’s something that will more impact how people vote rather than Boris Johnson’s handling of the war in Ukraine.
TSE
PS – I wrote this piece before Boris Johnson’s stunning act of bellendery yesterday where he linked the conflict in Ukraine to Brexit, something which Rishi Sunak repudiated today. Boris Johnson’s comments were as stupid and crass as the small number of Scot Nats who tried to compare the events in Ukraine to Scottish independence, I’m even more confident that there will be no polling boost for the Tories because of the war in Ukraine.