Another manic Sunday

It is difficult to know where to begin this morning in the Sunday papers treatment of the Prime Minister but perhaps the Independent's headline sums it up

Britain's new national sport: Taking pot shots at Brown

You start feeling sorry for the man who was accused at the beginning of his premiership for not listening and now when he listens he is accused of selling out.

David Milliband appearing on Andrew Marr's programme this morning puts it down to a combination of the Mid Term blues and the World Economic position.

There is no escaping the fact that this is in part of the government's making and as David Cmeron pointed out on the same programme,who would have ever thought that a Labour government would attack the poorest people.

Perhaps most worrying though is the News of the World poll of marginals the Battle ground where the next election will take place which reveals

9% swing gives Cam 131 seats
64 majority largest gap since 1997
Tories are winning the war of ideas

As the paper points out

The last time we ran our rule over the 145 marginal seats six months ago the results SCARED him so much he called off an early general election at the last minute.

Fraser Nelson writing on Coffee House says

What jumped out at me from the poll was how Brown is being squeezed from both ends. The DE social groups are deserting him and the As were never really with him. The over-65s, the group that is most likely to vote, are also most likely to vote Tory. Nor is there any difference in Tory support from marginals in the south, midlands and north. You could scarcely ask for better demographic and social split. The alliance that took Thatcher to power is regrouping behind Cameron – in the marginals, at least.

And Ian Kirby writing in the News of the World says

Pensioners and working class voters show considerably lower levels of support
for Gordon Brown in all areas. And for the first time the Conservatives' support
is growing outside of their South Eastern heartlands. Voters in the North and
the Midlands show the same levels of support. And Cameron's new supporters now
include a third of those who voted Labour in 2005. And for the first time
working class voters are deserting Brown.

The comment writers are also using the Sundays to stick the knife in

What Labour cannot decide is how far it still wishes to engage with reality: to make the titanic daily effort to address the world as it is, not as politicians would like it to be. "It would be a good idea just to look at things the way voters see them occasionally,

writes Matthew D'ancona in the Telegraph

It's time for a change says the leader in the Times looking towards Thursday's mayoral elections

The Conservatives, if they are ready for government, will ensure that Mayor Johnson is bolstered with enough back-up to make it work. Mr Johnson knows that this is his last shot at demonstrating that he can be a serious politician after many false starts. Above all, a victory for Mr Livingstone would suggest that voters are too forgiving of Labour’s blunders and mismanagement under Mr Brown. They should not be and that message needs to be rammed home this week

Although the Sunday Mirror reminds us that

however much voters may grumble, they need to think carefully before turning from Labour in next Thursday's elections.
The consequences of handing over control of councils to the Conservatives would be disastrous, especially City Hall in London.
Despite the user-friendly face that David Cameron presents to voters, it is a veneer to hide the usual Tory cuts.