What Lib Dem members say about the party’s direction and Nick Clegg’s leadership

By Stephen Tall | Sun 23rd September 2012 - 9:50 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.

Sharp fall in net satisfaction with party’s direction to +9%

LDV asked: Do you think, as a whole, the Liberal Democrats are on the right course or on the wrong track? (Comparison with August’s figures.)

There’s a sharp fall this month in the number of Lib Dem members satisfied with the direction of the party, with a just +9% now satisfied — down from +23% last month, and from +49% as recently as February. A combination of the NHS Bill controversy, the botched Budget, and the continuing recession has led to net satisfaction plunging in the last six months. Here’s the trend over the first two-and-a-half years of the Coalition:

Nick’s leadership ratings go negative for the first time

What is your view of Nick Clegg’s performance as Lib Dem leader? (Comparison with August’s figures.)

Total satisfied = 48% (-8%)

Total dissatisfied = 50% (+7%)

Just as satisfaction with the party has declined sharply over the past six months, so has satisfaction with Nick Clegg’s leadership of the Lib Dems. This month is the first time, though, that the party leader’s net ratings have dipped into the negative zone. In February, Nick’s net satisfaction rating stood at +38% net satisfaction. Even last month they stood at +13%. Most of our survey was conducted before Nick’s broadcast apology (still less the remix chart hit!), so we have yet to see what impact that may have on party members’ perceptions. The party leader usually benefits from a post-conference boost in our surveys, so our post-conference poll will be an interesting test.

Over 1,200 Lib Dem paid-up party members are registered with LibDemVoice.org. Some 500 responded to the latest survey, which was conducted between 19th and 22nd September. NB: most responses received before Nick Clegg’s apology broadcast.

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

matt 23rd Sep '12 - 10:02am

I am sure we are all eager to comment on Nick Cleggs speech to conference last night, but unusually there has been no article with nick clegg’s speech in full posted to this site for people to comment upon. Are we likely to get one LDV?
Tony Dawson 23rd Sep '12 - 11:47am

I thought Nick Clegg’s performance on Andrew Marr this morning was not far short of excellent. Unfortunately, the ups and downs of such performances do not address fundamentals.
Martin Pierce 24th Sep '12 - 7:35am

He’s got to go. That’s been true for some time. Looks like more and more people are waking up