Nine months on: how the party’s leaders have fared

Our place to talk – an independent website for supporters of the Liberal Democrat party in the UK.

The most-read independent website by and for Lib Dem supporters. Not paid for by trade unions or millionaires.

Advert

Nine months on: how the party’s leaders have fared

By Mark Pack | Mon 18th December 2006 - 10:00 am

Follow @markpack

Liberal Democrats poll ratings graph

Read more by Mark Pack .
This entry was posted in Polls.

Advert

6 Comments

Rob Fenwick 18th Dec '06 - 10:35am

Ahem. Would you kindly shrink that bloody great big graphic? 🙂
Mark Pack 18th Dec '06 - 10:52am

Oh, if I must…
Neil Woollcott 18th Dec '06 - 10:56am

Can you really assess popularity in this way? Doesn’t opinion polls look at the electability of parties?And yes I know that this ie effected by the standing of the party leader. Therefore, there cannot be a true a comparision between 1989 and 2006.

What you can say is that each party leader has had a positive inpact on the fortuntes of the party. Paddy (+6) helped achieve this more than Charles (+4).
tristan 18th Dec '06 - 7:45pm

Ming does have the great advantage of having had Paddy and Charles before him. He is seeking to leave a similar increase when he leaves (whenever that is, which I think will be a while), and a party in fit shape for government.

People thought that we’d have massive poll drops with the trouble at the beginning of the year, but we’ve shown them to be wrong.

I’d be interested in the changes in poll ratings over the 9 months and the personal ratings.

(and of course, these are also affected by outside events…)
hywelmorgan 20th Dec '06 - 6:18pm

I’m always keen to remember what Mark Twain said about statistics 🙂

Comparable satisfaction ratings for how X is doing as leader of the Liberal Democrats
Ashdown -6
Kennedy +18
Campbell -9

Healthcheck warning though – At one stage Paddy was at -24 – by the 1992 election he was on +25 so how much weight you can attach to these figures I don’t know. I suspect very little.

If you look at Mori’s long term leader attributes statistics Charles never significantly bettered Paddy’s performance on the positive attributes – even in his “stong” areas like “down to earth” or in overall figures.

Like Charles and Paddy before him Ming has strengths and flaws. I didn’t vote for him but he was clearly the best performer at the hustings I went to for example. The key thing is to play to his strengths and they will overcome his flaws.
hywelmorgan 20th Dec '06 - 6:19pm

Sorry – source for those figures is Mori – http://www.mori.co.uk – Leader satisfaction ratings.