All we’ve heard from the political sphere recently is that Nick Clegg is toxic and Ed Miliband is the great new leader of the Labour Party. This seems to be the publics opinions, heck there are many Lib Dems I know who dislike Nick Clegg for daring to enter into a coalition government with the Tories. However the facts may not fit the story. In today’s FT there is a story following a poll by Ipsos Mori on the two leaders and they observe that Clegg is more popular than Miliband.
Yep you read that right. It seems that 40% of people who responded to the poll liked Clegg compared to Miliband’s 36% and both had a dislike rating of 51%. Now when you consider that Labour are ahead in the polls at the moment and when you add up the poll results for Tories and Lib Dems it still doesn’t come to 50% hinting that more people the poll spoke to are not following nor are they pro this government. So when you think of it like that this result is even more surprising considering the general consensus.
Remember it was only a few days ago that Ed Miliband said he wouldn’t share a stage with Nick Clegg on AV as Nick Clegg was too unpopular yet the facts seem to state otherwise. Will Ed Miliband just brush this off as a statistical fluke or will he continue to believe that he’s immensely popular because that is what the unions keep telling him? This isn’t the first poll of its kind and Miliband doesn’t seem to be getting any more popular.
Between them both Clegg and Miliband can win the AV referendum but their petty squabbles aren’t exactly helping their cause. Tribal politics are so annoying as it gets in the way of progress. Just sort it out and win the AV referendum and then we can move on. If the referendum does not succeed then FPTP is here for the next 20-25 years and MPs can be lazy in safe seats knowing that whatever they do they’ll always get re-elected and that isn’t what anyone (except those MPs) want.
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Interesting article. Your point about lazy MPs is a good one. But it’s not just the lazy MPs who are afraid of AV – those with their hands in the expenses till are too. And guess what – their opposing reform too…
http://livingonwords.blogspot.com/2011/01/expenses-shame-of-111-no-to-av-labour.html