Forget the petition, it's just a bit of fun. Labour are behind in three of the last five polls now.
I can well believe that they may have chosen to get some of the tougher decisions out early to bite the bullet - not a bad long term tactic if it works - but in terms of popularity, has there ever been a government that has roundly lost it's popularity so rapidly?
I think most of us said so at the time, that even if the result was similar, it didn't feel like 1997, and that certainly seems to be true.
Looking at the post '97 polls, Labour went up to 63% a few months after the election. Quite extraordinary really.
Post 1997 polls:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opin...neral_election
Current polls:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opin...neral_election