Blair Up In Polls, Too

Following news that President Bush is enjoying a Kennedy-crushing 57% approval comes news that Tony Blair is doing extremely well in the build-up to elections. From the Times of London:

LABOUR’S confidence about its election prospects was strengthened last night as it recorded its highest rating since the fall of Baghdad in the latest Populus poll for The Times.

The party has risen above 40 per cent for the first time since April 2003, after a month in which Iraq took its first steps towards democracy.

The poll gives Labour 41 per cent, three percentage points higher than a month ago. Conservative support remains flat, with a one-point fall to 32 per cent. The Liberal Democrats are down two at 18 per cent.

Immigration is the top issue in the election, and Blair appears to be responding on a point that's seen as his major point of vulnerability:

In an unexpected move, Mr Clarke announced that low-skilled workers not from EU or Western European countries will be prevented from settling permanently in Britain. Only skilled workers will be allowed to settle, with the unskilled allowed to remain only for short periods of time. Skilled workers will have to pass tests in the English language and their knowledge of British life.