Measuring what Lib Dem members think the party is achieving in Coalition

By Stephen Tall | Wed 7th November 2012 - 7:55 am

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 550 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

Party members split on Lib Dem influence achieved within Coalition

How would you rate the extent of the Liberal Democrat influence within the Coalition Government, where 10 is highly influential, and 1 indicates no influence. (Comparison with September’s figures in brackets.)

Lacking influence = 51% (-2%)

Achieving influence = 49% (+2%)

This is the fifth time we’ve asked the party members who participate in LibDemVoice’s surveys this question, asking you to rank on a scale of 1-10 the level of influence you think the party is exerting within the Coalition.

In March, Lib Dem members felt by a margin of 67%-31% that the party was achieving influence within the Coalition government. However, this has dropped significantly in recent months — most noticeably when the Conservatives went broke their pledge to introduce an elected House of Lords in July, but also as a result of the Tories’ (and therefore to some extent at least the Government’s) significant shift to the right since the reshuffle.

For the second successive month, Lib Dem members now feel the party lacks influence by a narrow margin, 51%-49%. The average mark Lib Dems gave was 5.7 out of 10. The modal mark was 7/10.

Over 1,200 Lib Dem paid-up party members are registered with LibDemVoice.org. Some 550 responded to the latest survey, which was conducted between 28th and 31st October.

Please note: we make no claims that the survey is fully representative of the Lib Dem membership as a whole. However, LibDemVoice.org’s surveys are the largest independent samples of the views of Lib Dem members across the country, and have in the past offered accurate guides to what party members think.

For further information on the reliability/credibility of our surveys, please refer to FAQs: Are the Liberal Democrat Voice surveys of party members accurate? and polling expert Anthony Wells’ verdict, On that poll of Lib Dem members.

The full archive of our members’ surveys can be viewed at www.libdemvoice.org/category/ldv-members-poll

* Stephen was Editor (and Co-Editor) of Liberal Democrat Voice from 2007 to 2015, and writes at The Collected Stephen Tall.

3 Comments

g 7th Nov '12 - 8:49am

Averages hide the most striking observation – the distribution curve has two peaks.

Clear evidence of a strong divide in the party over the coalition.
Andrew Martin 7th Nov '12 - 10:19am

Not sure 5 should count as ‘lacking influence’ – in theory on a 1-10 basis it is in the lower half but psychologically most people think of it as a half-way marker.
paul barker 7th Nov '12 - 4:33pm

If we look at the 3 highest votes they are for 7, pretty influential, with 6 & 3 equal second. The top 3 on their own take nearly 3/5ths of the votes.
There is a clear split with the larger group going for more influence.
I agree with Andrew Martins point, this would work better if the scale were 1-9 instead.