The country is yet to be convinced of the benefits of coalition government.
The country is yet to be convinced of the benefits of coalition government
As the year draws to a close, eyes in Westminster and beyond will be fixed firmly on May’s General Election.
The polls are clear – barring some miraculous turnaround in the fortunes of either Labour or the Conservatives, the country is heading for another hung Parliament.
Against this backdrop, Ipsos Mori has released data as part of its final political monitor for the year showing that the country is yet to be convinced as to the benefits of coalition government.
Firstly, the polling shows that 63 per cent of voters now believe a coalition government is the likely result in May (25 per cent very likely, 38 per cent fairly likely). This is up from the 51 per cent who thought it was likely in January (14 per cent very likely compared to 37 per cent fairly likely).
However such a prediction should not be viewed as an endorsement for this form of government. Almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of respondent said that a coalition government would be a bad thing for the country, the same proportion as recorded in January.
Interestingly, however, the proportion of those believing the current coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats has been bad for the country has fallen slightly to 56 per cent, down from the 60 per cent recorded in January.
Commenting on the findings, Gideon Skinner, head of political research at Ipsos MORI, said:
“As the year ends, the prospect of another coalition is growing more likely in voters’ minds – a reflection of the historically low levels of support they are giving the main parties, even while the same voters maintain they don’t like the idea of coalitions. There are differences even within the current coalition too – Liberal Democrats are over twice as likely as Conservative voters to think another Coalition is what Britain needs.”
Ed Jacobs is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward
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31 Responses to “Voters not keen on coalition 2.0”
AlanGiles
The two main parties give the impression of having inane “leadership”, the LibDems probably have committed suicide, Nigel Farage is a music hall turn.
Could any one of them be trusted with a clear majority. Miliband is weak, but I think the even bigger problem is Balls – and I suspect that Miliband would be saddled for the whole of his premiership (if he got it) with Balls just as Auntie Tony was stuck with Uncle Gordon
CGR
Coalition openly arramged and agreed or the quiet hidden coalition of the pro-EU LibLabCon establishment?
Mike B
Peacetime coalitions are little more than a way for second rate politicians from minor parties to get a slice of the action. The Lib Dems got what they wished for in 2010 and hopefully will pay a huge price in May. A Labour majority is far from impossible but let’s face it people vote for parties not coalitions. All to play for.
littleoddsandpieces
There is a Labour leaning blog so desperate as now calling The Greens a Nazi party, of fascistic beliefs, when The Greens are unlikely to win more than the 1 MP they already have.
Labour can wina majority if it did a u-turn in its policies to repeal the Coalition’s
Pension Bills 2010-2014, that has led to the flat rate pension 2016 that will mean
NIL STATE PENSION FOR LIFE and LESS NOT MORE state pension
for women born from 1953 and men born from 1951,
already denied pay out of state pension for 7 years from 2013, when the ring fenced and full National Insurance Money has the money sitting pretty since 2013 and wrongly being called a surplus.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
As the equalising the state pension at 60 for men and women would cost nothing in 2015 from the full NI Fund, it would also solve the half of over 60s inside the working poor’s cost of living crisis as it would mean not having to pay 12 per cent of wage in NI deductions each year from those 20 per cent lowest income.
Balls is indeed a millstone round Miliband’s neck and needs to be reshuffled out or Balls gain an epiphany moment and grab and make better the automatic Citizen Income in the Greens’ policy website but not yet in its 2015 manifesto pledges, that would solve starvation for all immediately.
And The Greens offer a full state pension for all citizens, irregarldless of NI contribution / credit history, to same amount and more of the Citizen Income that is not yet in The Greens’ 2015 manifesto, whereas the current pension bills abolish or reduce the state pension just when the poor are getting poorer, even being observed so by the rich people’s newspaper The Times, who say benefit reform is causing preventable impoverishment. So Labour could also steal a march with bettering that Greens’ policy.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
Guest
Keep fighting that “quiet coalition”, Democracy.