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Tuesday 27 May 2014

Getting rid of Clegg?

Mike Smithson over at politicalbetting.com thinks serious money has been spent on a recent ICM poll designed to put pressure on Nick Clegg.

Hopefully later today ICM will release the detailed data [*] from the private polling that’s splashed by the Guardian this morning. The broad message of what’s been leaked is that the party stands to do worse in four key seats that it already holds without a change of leader.

The choice of pollster is interesting. ICM has over the years tended to show the most favourable position for the Lib Dems.

What struck me are not just the numbers but the fact that serious money is being spent on the effort to try to get Clegg out.

Constituency surveys like this are just about the most complex and expensive political polling that you can do. They can only be carried out by phone and the bill for this job will have been tens of thousands of pounds. It also takes time and planning. It is not the sort of thing that could have been commissioned last week.

[*] my link

Well it is easy enough to believe that powerful Lib Dem insiders want to be rid of Clegg well before next year's general election. As for the wider picture, I wonder if we are seeing the demise of the Lib Dems.

Without an obviously unique Lib Dem selling point, three mainstream parties may be one too many. The success of UKIP clearly highlights the lack of political choice in UK politics and the Lib Dems may pay the price. Dire he may be, but I suspect the problem runs deeper than Clegg's unappealing political persona.

4 comments:

Sam Vega said...

Excellent article over on Alexander Boot's blog

http://alexanderboot.com/content/little-bet-2015-general-election

He reckons all three could go.

His blog is well worth looking at regularly. We're lucky to have him. I particularly like the fact that he plays tennis at the same club as Clegg, who he sees there some afternoons. You'd think Clegg would be a fanatical workaholic, but it somehow makes his demise even more delicious to know that he is a lazy bastard.

A K Haart said...

Sam - yes it is delicious. I've always seen Clegg as rather idle too, although I'm not sure it rings true. Do people drift up the greasy pole? It sounds unlikely.

I suppose the main problem with replacing party leaders is a lack of good alternatives.

Demetrius said...

When out for our walk, we a mild mannered pair of ancients tottering along were accosted by a couple of local Lib Dem's on the prowl. After very few minutes of insufferable arrogance and condescension we were moving off but they insisted on us letting them know our address. So I gave one I know to be packed with transient Lithuanian Russians. Also, we were quite sure we would never, ever, under any circumstances cast a vote for the Lib Dem's

A K Haart said...

Demetrius - they just don't get it do they? I hope they had a nice time with those Lithuanian Russians!