Friday, June 06, 2008

May Political Performance Index: Pickles Stars!


In only his second month in the PPI, Eric Pickles climbs to the top of the chart, up six months from April. And who could quibble? Boris is king of all he surveys, now top of the PPI. In December he was in 12th place. Liam Fox's impressive TV performances see him climb into the top six for the first time. John Denham and James Purnell are two high climbers, while David Miliband plummets 16 places. Ate his dreadful performance on Question Time last night he'll do well to recover in this month's figures.

1. +6 Eric Pickles 7.44 (5.16)
2. -1 Boris Johnson 7.41 (6.97)
3. -1 David Cameron 7.32 (6.86)
4. -1 William Hague 5.96 (5.90)
5. - Alex Salmond 5.78 (5.48)
6. +9 Liam Fox 5.78 (3.80)
7. -1 George Osborne 5.75 (5.46)
8. -4 Vince Cable 5.52 (5.70)
9. +1 Alan Duncan 5.44 (4.68)
10. -1 David Davis 5.39 (4.88)
11. -2 Michael Gove 5.38 (4.86)
12. -1 Chris Grayling 5.18 (4.33)
13. +16 Alan Johnson 4.40 (3.26)
14. -2 Ian Paisley 4.30 (4.27)
15.
+5 Andrew Lansley 4.09 (3.59)
16. - Philip Hammond 3.90 (3.79)
17. +1 Theresa May 3.83 (3.70)
18. -4 Caroline Spelman 3.81 (3.86)
19. +9 John Denham 3.76 (3.29)
20. +7 John Hutton 3.66 (3.37)
21. +4 David Willetts 3.66 (3.43)
22. - Jack Straw 3.64 (3.57)
23. +10 James Purnell 3.63 (3.10)
24. -3 Nick Herbert 3.61 (3.59)
25. +5 Jeremy Hunt 3.59 (3.21)
26. -2 Rhodri Morgan 3.53 (3.49)
27. -4 Chris Huhne 3.45 (3.40)
28. -2 Nick Clegg 3.40 (3.40)
29. -16 David Miliband 3.38 (3.98)
30. +1 Hilary Benn 3.36 (3.18)
31. +1 Nigel Farage 3.26 (3.16)
32. +4 Ed Davey 3.25 (2.76)
33. +1 Andy Burnham 3.12 (2.87)
34. +1 Andrew Mitchell 3.10 (2.80)
35. +2 Caroline Flint 2.59 (2.70)
36. +2 Jacqui Smith 2.55 (2.57)
37. +2 Douglas Alexander 2.54 (2.48)
38. +2 Hazel Blears 2.48 (2.47)
39. +4 Ed Miliband 2.45 (2.37)
40. +1 Ruth Kelly 2.42 (2.43)
41. +1 Harriet Harman 2.40 (2.39)
42. +3 Des Browne 2.32 (2.04)
43. +1 Alistair Darling 2.03 (2.17)
44. +4 Ed Balls 1.93 (1.84)
45. +2 NEW Yvette Cooper 1.86 (1.94)
46. +3 Gordon Brown 1.75 (1.77)
47. - Wendy Alexander 1.71 (1.71)



14 comments:

Anonymous said...

The real star of the show is Guido. He's unearthed a third MEP with his hand in the till.

Anonymous said...

Iain - why so few diary entries! Have you abandoned us???

Shaun said...

Haha, well other than Guido, Pickles has been a bit of a 4* General on the old election front. Hats off to him!

JH said...

I must admit that I only caught the last half of the programme last night, but was David Miliband's performance really so bad?

I don't of course mean this in any fundamental sense: I disagreed with him entirely. That said, I thought he spoke well and seemed persuasive, so long as one didn't think very hard about what he was saying. Perhaps I simply haven't seen enough of his performances; perhaps others were excellent by contrast, but I thought he was worryingly on the ball.

Also, does Pickles really deserve quite as much acclaim as he is receiving? I'm sure he deserves plenty, but it strikes me that he was, surely, not the only person responsible for C&N, and there's always a temptation to love those with cutesy names. Besides, when he was on Question Time the other week I didn't think he was so great.

Am I being unreasonable?

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to Eric Pickles for a well-deserved leap up the charts! We'll be keeping our eye on him!

I was saddened to see that Harriet Harpy had gained a point.

John M Ward said...

Interesting that the three Ed s have each risen four places (not months, by the way, as your mention of the excellent Mr Pickles states).

I too was impressed with Liam Fox, whom I have liked for some time, so was pleased at his result.

Newmania said...

I`m not sure Millipede was quite as bad as all that Iain , he should ,in my opinion, have been given a much harder time but hemanaged to pontificate his way through most of it as usual

Anonymous said...

JH - Pickles was also wonderful on that instant messenger thing that Iain had on. People piled in and he gave really strong answers right off the bat. No equivocation. People liked him.

Anonymous said...

Ian I know this is slightly off topic but nobody has answered my "Where is Charles Kennedy?" Is he still at the station? Anyway my wife and I agree on one thing the "no tie" look is better when you review the papers. Have a good weekend.
freedom to prosper

Anonymous said...

In fairness to Vincent Cable he seems to know what he is talking about.
freedom to prosper

JH said...

verity- thanks for that: I missed that entirely. If strong off-the-battage is there, I'm delighted.

I shall have to watch more live-chats!

Anonymous said...

Re Anonymous 8:55's comment. Iain, if you are going about tieless, like your foolish leader, I will not watch you on TV any more. I've never seen anything more ridiculous than Cameron in a dress shirt with an open collar and no tie. How patronising! ("See? I'm just like you!") Do you know how insulting this is to hundreds of thousands of men who are required to go to to their employment looking as smart as they can, on their salaries, in a suit and tie?

This man wants to lead the British government but looks as though he's a trendy Anglican priest about to reach for his guitar.

A tie makes a man look finished - especially your ties. Just kidding, I genuinely like your ties. I meant 'finished' in a good way.

Anonymous said...

JH - Definitely strong off-the-battage, which is why so many of us ranked him so highly.

Anonymous said...

David Miliband on Question Time was absolutely appalling! when David Attenborough read out his quote that he wanted Tony Blair back, he cravenly blamed his brother! It sounded really bad.

His expression when asked if he was ready to lead the Labour Party out of trouble was absolutely priceless, no wonder Gordon Brown is concerned about knife crime, with that little pipsqueak at his shoulder blades.