Labour 2002 vs National 2008

Yest another opinion poll has shown that National is miles ahead. I am always cautious of complancency, and thought that National's lead mirrors the posistion Labour was in when Helen Clark called a snap election in 2002, when Labour led by a substantial margin.

Here is a graph of the One News Colmar Brunton polls for the last twelve months before the 2002 Election, and for the corresponding period for the 2008 Election (to date).



As you can see, National in the last 12 months has been in a better posisition than Labour was in 2001-2002, but the last two One News polls have National with identical results to Labour at the same period before the election.

As voters became more interested in the policies of all parties before the election, the vote split from the main parties and made it's way to the smaller parties - Labour losing 10%, and National losing 15%.

Food for thought for all those in the National party - and encouragement for all those in other parties.