Stephen Tall

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 500 party members have responded, and we’ve been publishing the full results. This is the final part.

Party members give Lib Dems 7 out of 10 for influence within the 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.

1: 1%
2: 6%
3: 15%
4: 11%
5: 10%
Lacking influence = 43% (+12%)
6: 19%
7: 23%
8: 11%
9: 3%
10: 1%
Achieving influence = 57% (-11%)

This is the third 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. This survey was conducted during the period of controversy over House of Lords reform being dropped, and I suspect that has had some bearing on the results: though 57% give a mark in the upper range (6-10) — indicating the party is exerting influence — this is markedly down on June’s equivalent figure of 68%. The corresponding lacking influence figure is up significantly, to 43%. In other words, Lib Dem members now feel like they are getting much less out of backing the Coalition than they did a couple of months ago. Given the Tories’ breach of faith on the Coalition Agreement over Lords reform, this is unsurprising.

* Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, a Research Associate for the liberal think-tank CentreForum, and also writes at his own site, The Collected Stephen Tall.