Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Distrust in Party Leaders Increases

Ipsos MORI has just released results from a weekend telephone poll on trust in political leaders. David Cameron has been hit by the grammar school fallout. Blair's ratings are inchanged since Septemner, but Cameron's trust rating has dropped 17%. Sir Menzies Campbell's rating has also dropped by 11% and Gordon Brown has dropped by 10%.

This is the lowest rating yet for Gordon Brown, and means he will start as Prime Minister with a lower trust rating than Blair had after three years as Prime Minister. Ipsos MORI say...
These findings reflect the fact that the 'bounce' Blair received after announcing his resignation still holds — but does not extend to his Labour colleague Gordon Brown. And all leaders suffer from a lack of trust within their own parties: 22% of Conservative supporters do not trust Cameron, 23% of Labour supporters don't trust Brown and 28% of Liberal Democrat supporters don't trust Campbell. The public are divided equally on whether they would go for a pint with David Cameron or Gordon Brown — 38% would choose David Cameron and 37% Gordon Brown.

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

He picks his nose and eats it!In a place he knew to bo public AND televised!for goodness' sake!It's quite wrong the media didn't show that clip.People have a right to know if their would-be leaders have some obvious underlying flaw.

Newmania said...

If you look at the Book "After Blair: David Cameron and the Conservative Tradition: by Kieron O'Hara."

He has a discussion of voting as it compares to "Trust" levels and concludes that trust is not something people think is very important when it comes to voting choices. I agree , taxes, crime schools hopitals ,services , war.
Trust is a women`s magazine thing and what does it really mean in this context ?


IMHO

Anonymous said...

I dont trust MORI.

Anonymous said...

Iain link please?

Anonymous said...

Didn't Cameron used to win that 'go for a pint with' question by 20% over Brown at one stage?

Anonymous said...

Well I know I'd never go for a pint with Broon .... one just knows that he would slide off when it was his round.

jailhouselawyer said...

Isn't this what Tony Blair is saying in his speech on public life?

Anonymous said...

They are not trusted because, in pursuit of the floating voter and the middle ground, they constantly hedge their bets, fearful of saying anything that might alienate any particular section of the electorate.

And if, by mistake, they do say something forthright (e.g. on grammar schools) they start backpedalling furiously at the first whiff of trouble.

It doesn't have to be this way. Being up front and forthright did Sakorsky no harm.

Anonymous said...

I like those figures. It's payback time. Time for them to understand that the electorate doesn't like politicians.

Anonymous said...

'He has a discussion of voting as it compares to "Trust" levels and concludes that trust is not something people think is very important when it comes to voting choices. I agree , taxes, crime schools hopitals ,services , war.
Trust is a women`s magazine thing and what does it really mean in this context ?'

But surely 'Trust' in this case is the belief in said politican to carry out the policies which they have stated. In that regard, trust is very important.

Anyone can say 'we will cut crime by 50%', but how many people have belief/trust that that will happen.

Chris Paul said...

This last result needs to be waited. They are level pegging even though everyone knows Cameron would pay for the beer and Brown would not. Brown would probably be twice as popular if it weren't for that factor.

Tapestry said...

Party leaders, Verity...not all politicians.

MPs might be able to revolt some more yet as they did over grammar schools, and put Party bosses back under control.

It was Blair that used the media to subdue his own Party, and browbeat and charmed everyone into obeying. Brown's trying the same tricks but does not have the same finesse/effectiveness. Labour rebellion is growing as is Conservative.

On the EU, maybe MPs from all parties will break rank and take on their party leaders to support Lord Rannoch's Bill currently going through the Lords and soon to reach the Commons. It demands a cost/benefit ananlysis of the EU.

That would put Party leaders in their place, and change the balance of power if they did.

Liberal Republican said...

I was just in a conference call with Hilary Benn and this did come up.

It's going to be interesting on how we deal with it. We do have a media that likes to carry out witch hunts, but of course, politicians are to blame too.

Power needs to restored at local level in order to rebuild the trust. But it will take time to heal.

Anonymous said...

Going off topic Iain you'll be alarmed to see your Chipmonk's campaign HQ has collapsed. Is this an omen?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6746017.stm

Unsworth said...

So what else is new? What entertains me is Blair's whole snivelleing 'poor me, I'm so hard done by' speech. Sup with the Devil etc etc.

Frankly he hasn't got a leg to stand on. Almost alone he has destroyed what slight reputation there was for politicians. Then to comment that jounalists' (Journalists, for God's sake!) standing in society is 'only slightly above' that of politicians! Does he mean that politicians are now viewed as the lowest of the low?

This state affairs can only be attributable to one man - Anthony Blair, our illustrious and honourable Prime Minister, a symbol for our time.

Anonymous said...

Collapsed London building!

"The building houses the campaign office of Labour deputy leadership contender Hazel Blears."

Man in a Shed said...

Slightly off topic: Note the building that Hazel Blears has her deputy leadership campaign has just partially collapsed - so Sky news reports. But I think your chipmunk is safe.

They say:
The campaign office of Labour's deputy leadership contender Hazel Blears is located in the building.

She held a meeting with a number of MPs in the building just a few hours before it collapsed.

A spokesman said her staff had been evacuated and none had been hurt in the incident.

The Hitch said...

A pint?
Where?

Daves "spit and sawdust" Portobello rd tapas bar ?
I cant Imagine Brown in a pub for any other reason than to check that the landlord wasnt fidling his wastage.
The Hitch would rather stand under a shower of leper urine for 24 hours than have a drink with either of them.

Christopher Glamorgan said...

There cannot be any distrust in Party Leaders in the Assembly as they all seem to be getting on fine (big smile)...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6746001.stm

Arnie said...

OT - Has anyone noticed how anti-England the British Council are?

I just found the following line in one of their press releases -

'With leading artists representing Great Britain, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland'. I was under the impression that Scotland and Wales were part of Great Britain...

uk-events said...

I've never trusted Blair. Not changed since he took over from John Smith.

Cameron isn't long enough established to earn my trust or mistrust.

What damages him for me about Grammar Schools its the same pointless argument which actually affects very few people.

Sick of of these small thinking politicians. This country is screaming out for a massive change in society. Its about time these jerks got off their overpaid arses and delivered it.

Anonymous said...

Why would anyone "trust" a politician to be anything other than a snake ?

You could rephrase the MORI poll....would you trust a PR man ?

Do you trust a Scottish barrister ?

Do you trust a former Scottish TV presenter and student activist ?

The Remittance Man said...

I'm afraid I'd jon neither of them for a pint. Not only would I be too tempted to punch either of them, rendering me barred from yet another watering hole. But, Call Me Dave would probably be asked for proof of age and as Vervet points out, Gordon would probably sniffle off and hide in the gents when it was his shout.

Anonymous said...

Lord Rannoch is a righteous dude and I have thought so for a long time.

Anonymous said...

Verity:

Is that the "real Verity" speaking at 8.27 pm?

I have trouble reconciling your normal pattern of speech with the phrase "rightful dude."

However, it is you, I think I would enjoy a pint of whatever you've had...

Anonymous said...

I used to trust politicians to a certain extent...well you could always rely on their predictable incompetence.

I really thought Cameron was trustworthy...ha!

Now I wouldn't trust any of them, none of the current crop. What we need is to sack the lot of them and have no more politicians. The people could then run the country by direct democracy via the internet.

Perhaps it could be a sort of spin off from Iain's blog...

Anonymous said...

The Remittance Man said...

I'm afraid I'd jon neither of them for a pint. Not only would I be too tempted to punch either of them

How COULD you, RM, you should be ashamed. No way would I lower mself to punching politicians...I'd just tell them their sleazy life histories then tip their beers over their heads.

Madasafish said...

I know whenI will trust politicians.
When they measure themselves by league tables.

So I'll wait until hell freezes over:-)

Anonymous said...

If you practise your German on this Iain you will see a major collapse in trust in political parties throughout Europe

Die Welt

Anonymous said...

Tony Blair thought you can fool all of the people all of the time. Because of the way in which he and his Ministers have behaved for 10 years it is no longer possible to believe politicians as a class.

Blair espoused the policy that it was not necessary to do something, only to promise to do it. Then the figures could be juggled so that many really thought the promise had been fulfilled.

Gradually, one let down at a time, the majority of voters realised that it was all conjuring and mass hypnotism.

It is hard to see how his successors for the next 20 years can ever persuade the voters that they are believable and not just acting sincere.

Victor

Anonymous said...

Pax - Yes, it was me. And I wrote "righteous dude" not "rightful dude", dude. I lived in Texas for quite a few years and picked up the very fine lingo of that great state.

Machiavelli's Understudy said...

I wonder if there's been a similar poll for the smaller parties? I'd like to see how they compare.

The Remittance Man said...

Anon,

That would be a criminal waste of beer. Nope under these circumstances, and despite my usually pacific nature, violence would seem the only appropriate course of action - hence my reluctance to join either for a pint.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous on June 12, 2007 8:53 PM said -

'...The people could then run the country by direct democracy via the internet...'

Hundreds of years ago when communications were poor, it made sense for communities to send a representative to Parliament to legislate and debate on their behalf. Now, with instant messaging, blogs and email, we, as individuals could make those collective decisions ourselves.

Unfortunately, this will never happen - those in cosy positions of power, and their hangers on will not allow it.

I despair at the state of democracy in this country - I fear the only way left to reform politicians is to drag them kicking and screaming into the streets. There's no other way to get them to listen.

neil craig said...

Perhaps you should compare these polls more often with the position last year than last month. In any case though everybody wishes to divine the future in these tea leaves the margin of error, usually at least 3%, is greater than the differences.