ThirdSector.co.uk brings us the news:
A survey has suggested that more voluntary sector campaigners support the Liberal Democrats than Labour, with a significant percentage supporting the Conservative Party. The survey was carried out by recruitment consultancy The Right Ethos, which finds campaigners jobs with charities.
It looked at all 550 people on its database and found that, of the 80 who mentioned an involvement with a political party on their CVs, 45 per cent had a link with the Liberal Democrats, 31 per cent with Labour and 19 per cent with the Conservatives. Only 5 per cent favoured the Green Party.
Brian Lamb, acting chief executive of the RNID and a member of the Advisory Group on Campaigning and the Voluntary Sector, said the results defied conventional thinking. “This challenges the view that voluntary sector campaigners are biased towards the Labour Government,” he said. “The Lib Dems are over-represented and there is a very strong representation from the Tories.”
However, Lamb denied that having a clear political affiliation can compromise campaigners’ ability to do their jobs. “Campaigners are driven more by the commitment to achieving change for their issues,” he said. “This is more important than the political affiliations they hold.”
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8 Comments
Deeply worrying that we are getting support from these people, who are generally supporters of socialist policies and in receipt of state aid.
Why is it deeply worrying?
I think it’s good the party draws a wide range of support from the electorate.
Yes and no. I’ve worked on the edges of the sector a lot, and in my experience, yes, some people in it tend to leftiness as an unthinking default.
But another prominent strand in their outlook is a real anger with all the regulations and bureaucratic nonsenses that keep people from escaping the trap of poverty/going out to work/doing something green etc. They see the rough end of authoritarianism and how it impacts on people so frequently that it’s no wonder a lot of them end up liberally minded.
Sorry that was “yes and no” to Libertarian, not Thomas.
Or, more accurately, the survey tells us that the vast majority of voluntary sector campaigners have no political affiliation. This is meaningless data.
Or that many of the other people didn’t want to admit their affiliations. If they perceived that the scetor tended to the left they may hide this because they had sympathies for the centre-right. They seem less bothered as a proportion in admitting their links with the Lib-Dems so it would support that hypothesis.
Isn’t the Right Ethos job agency run by a former Lib Dem cllr, hense the association with so many Lib Dems?
I thought this story looked familiar, and then I realised it was – this was published on 24 October 2007, so it’s well over a year old.