Comments on: LDV members’ survey, August 2008 (5): how do you rate the performances of the current shadow cabinet?

By: Sesenco

Sesenco — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:45:34 +0000

I agree with the first three. They are stars, and a massive credit to the party.

I am, however, utterly horrified that members would put Julia Goldsworthy anywhere. Goldsworthy shouldn’t be in the Shadow Cabinet. Indeed, she shouldn’t be in the party.

We claim to be a party dedicated to the advancement of human freedom. Yet here is a Shadow Cabinet member who advocates martial law for under-16s – a full frontal assault on that most fundamental of human rights, freedom of movement.

Why did Nick Clegg not do to Goldsworthy what Ted Heath did to Enoch Powell in 1968?

Lord Lester said it is unacceptbale for a Liberal Democrat politician to pander to racist sentiment. And he was right. But it seems to be OK (for Nick Clegg at least) for Julia Goldsworthy to pander to malignant attitudes towards young people.

By: Romsey Harry

Romsey Harry — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:03:19 +0000

It’s not the “Shadow Cabinet”

By: Jay Entee

Jay Entee — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:22:00 +0000

Surprised at Willott and Goldsworthy, I reckon they are really bright.

By: Allan Moore

Allan Moore — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:43:50 +0000

Hmmm…

Not really suprised at Michael Moore’s low showing considering how far off the political landscape the Lib Dems have fallen up here. A score for Nicol Steven would have been very interesting…

By: Stephen Tall

Stephen Tall — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:01:42 +0000

In answer to James’ query about median scores for the survey, I haven’t the time to work those out… however it is easy to calculate the mode averages (ie, most frequently occurring score) from the survey – as follows:

Vince Cable 10
Nick Clegg 8
Norman Baker 7
Chris Huhne 7
David Laws 7
Steve Webb 7
Lynne Featherstone 6
Danny Alexander 5
Jeremy Browne 5
Edward Davey 5
Don Foster 5
Julia Goldsworthy 5
Nick Harvey 5
Simon Hughes 5
Susan Kramer 5
Norman Lamb 5
Tom McNally 5
Michael Moore 5
Sarah Teather 5
Roger Williams 5
Stephen Williams 5
Jenny Willott 5
Lembit Opik 1

I’m not sure this proves over much (other than that the modal average makes for boring statistics) – but it does show a lot of people rate Nick Clegg pretty highly. But there’s a minority who scored him very lowly, and brought down his mean average.

Still not much good news for Lembit, though, I’m afraid.

By: Anon

Anon — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:01:38 +0000

Thanks James. perhaps you and I could found a SAO for misanthropes?

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:15:26 +0000

What ever your feelings about particular MPs, the key thing here is the ordering of rankings rather than the absolute or even average score.

Lembit might be the party’s best communicator but only when it comes to making headlines in the tabloids.

It’s also hardly surprising that front benchers like Teather and Harvey score so low given their very poor media profile.

By: James Graham

James Graham — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:35:03 +0000

Ultimately, these things are only useful if you repeat the exercise, as ConHome do with their tracking poll. I actually don’t think you need to give clearer options – you just have to accept that some respondents are miserable old gits.

By: David Morton

David Morton — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:25:11 +0000

At the time lots of people commented that they gave people 5 because they didn’t know. That kind of inflates ratings. Being a miserable old git i gave 0 to people i didn’t know abot on the grounds that if i didn’t know about them they were doing a very good job. clearer options next time.

By: Mary Reid

Mary Reid — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:22:52 +0000

Thanks, Ryan!

By: Ryan Cullen

Ryan Cullen — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:20:03 +0000

@Mary, the site auto adds the links to each name, however it was looking for an Ed Davey, not Edward.
Have tweaked some code and it seems to be working now.

By: Mary Reid

Mary Reid — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:05:05 +0000

Why haven’t you got a link to Ed Davey’s website? It’s here: http://www.edwarddavey.co.uk/

By: Jo

Jo — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:53:15 +0000

What do you mean by ‘full throated’ James? Enthusiastic vocally?!!!

Seriously, when was this survey carried out?

By: James Graham

James Graham — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:41:22 +0000

Out of interest, what is the median score for each? (serious question)

By: James Graham

James Graham — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:40:53 +0000

I know I’ve blotted my copybook with a lot of people this week by suggesting that a large number of grassroots are less than enthused by Clegg’s performance but an average of 6.3/10 isn’t exactly a full-throated endorsement is it?

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:44:25 +0000

Re: shadow or not?

The Parliament website seems pretty clear on the matter:

http://www.parliament.uk/directories/hciolists/libdems.cfm

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:25:50 +0000

Teather deserves far better!

By: Chris Harrison

Chris Harrison — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:20:21 +0000

Bob – someone should advise the Scottish Conservatives of this!

http://www.scottishconservatives.com/people/shadow_cabinet.aspx

Seriously though, you are quite wrong. The term shadow implies shadowing a Secretary of State, but it doesn’t have any legal significance, as in “Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition”.

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:15:20 +0000

None of them is “Shadow” anything. They’re just spokesmen. Only the official opposition has shadow secretaries of state.

By: Paul Harrod

Paul Harrod — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:48:10 +0000

These are average ratings and no doubt a few hostile people would have put in a zero which would have a big effect on the final score.

I think Lembit is doing an excellent job, in a very important policy area, and his thoughtful interventions don’t get anything like the coverage they deserve as Stephen Tall pointed out in an LDV posting last month.

Lembit is one of the party’s very best communicators and has certainly inspired a large number of people who would otherwise be indifferent to politics to get involved.