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
31 Responses to “Voters not keen on coalition 2.0”
Leon Wolfeson
No, people under FPTP generally vote for coalitions which call themselves parties.
That’s a good bit of the problem with FPTP, and can only be fixed by ditching it for PR.
Leon Wolfeson
Yea, that evil democracy.
In fact, the issue is and remains FPTP.
Mike B
Of course all parties are in a sence coalitions but they present a programme at election time which in Britain at least coalitions have not. So all those who voted LD last time did not vote for a Conservative lead government.
Leon Wolfeson
Er, no. Parties under FPTP are coalitions, whereas it’s very rare in countries which use PR. There’s no “sense” involved, Labour, Tories and LibDems *are* already coalitions.
And better to be able to vote for people who represent your views under PR, rather than a “party” where one faction, one which may be marginalised, represent your views under FPTP.
PR brings parties much closer to the views of their voters.
Godfrey Paul
The leader of the Greens was on the World At One today and, although I disagree with almost every policy, she sounded very impressive. No wonder Milibean and his BBC doesn’t want her in any debates !!!