34 percent  think a hung parliament is in the country’s best interests

Liz Brown

The brains of the British population have been turned into soup after 13 years of Liebour misrule, hectoring and bullying

Choice please

The reason I want a hung parliament: it would get rid of Cameron (Edward Heath without the sailing). Whether one is a Tory or not, the country needs a Tory leader who offers a real choice at the ballot box. That is why Cameron has not already decapitated the worst government since records began. As it is, we have just another EU-compliant bot.

YA

Most likely UKIP will defeat LibDems, and rightfully so, - taking into account LibDem's long history of irresponsible guff, relativism, thorough avoidance of any substance, and proudly admitted political prostitution.

Tory/UKIP coalition would be an optimal choice.

Tiberius

We have to accept that around a quarter of our voters are nutjobs, I'm afraid. I'd say that the other 9% in this poll are taking a walk on the wild side for the day.

As for the Tories, the problems they faced pre-Cameron are still (unfortunately) alive and well. Whether the polls show a 5% or 15% lead, a majority ultimately of 30 would be a great achievment by Cameron. See our former ed's definitive piece on this in the ST.

GDT

I'm starting to realise that the are a vast number of ill informed people in the UK. Obviously people don't actually realise the scale of the problem. What is coming in the next 10 years will put open people's eyes. I hazard a guess that in the event of a hung parliment the subsequent chaos will mean another general election within 12 months. At which point an outright majority will be gained by one of the 2 main parties.

TrevorsDen

contracting polls?

The YouGov tracker shows an increase in the tory lead as does the Angus Reid poll - which actually shows a lead of 13%.

Why do you persist in talking about polls in this ignorant way?

denis cooper

I can understand the impulse - it's because some people don't trust any of the three main parties to govern alone.

And presumably they also reckon that with the country supposdly on the brink, facing economic and financial Armageddon, politicians of all parties should be prepared to dig deep and find enough residual patriotism to work together and save it.

However I don't jump to the conclusion that all 34% who say that they want a hung Parliament want it for those non-partisan reasons; some may want it because they think that otherwise their favoured party will have no chance of even a share of power.

Informed Giant

Ooh and did you also see that 25% of those surveyed admitted that contraception was not around when they were conceived...and a large minority of 34% or those surveyed believe VAT is something wine is distilled in...?

Tim Carpenter LPUK

I think it is in the Nation's best interests if it causes Party Fission, some musical chairs to get us out of this centrist ossification caused by a cross-party infection of Statist Fabian SocDemmery.

Compromise is their weapon of choice, which ultimately makes all others give up what they want and for the Fabians to give up precisely nothing.

Never sit down with Statists for negotiation. It is not worth it. Every "minor" concession you make will be the wedge that will eventually render all your other positions void.

PayDirt

I think maybe voters are very much put off by the endless slanging matches of Labour versus Conservative particularly as an election approaches. I mean really put off, so perhaps a “hung” parliament may usher in a different national politics. When in 1989 the countries of the former Communist bloc in Eastern Europe were liberating themselves from tired old rhetoric, the Czechs came out with Eight Rules of Dialogue:
- Your opponent is not your enemy, but your partner in the search for Truth
- Try to grasp what the other is saying, if you cannot understand their point of view, you can neither accept nor reject their statements
- Statements for which no proof is offered are not valid as arguments
- Do not try to dodge uncomfortable questions or arguments by steering the discussion in another direction
- Don’t fight to always have the last word
- Whoever attacks the personality of their opponent loses the right to participate in the dialogue
- Whoever is incapable of controlling his feelings and passions cannot conduct a dialogue with another person
- Do not confuse dialogue with monologue, don’t lose yourself in irrelevant details, use the time economically.

Since the country faces several if not many years of austerity to recover from debt, why are our putative leaders engaging in useless and time-wasting “debates” about the details. Good God, the country is about to collapse into massive unrest about who is going to pay the debt. I saw the BBC Newsnight programme on Education this last week. All I got from it was Balls ranting about minutae of what bit of budget did what, while the teacher on the other side tried to bring the subject under discussion back to why the teachers and school-children are so weary of endless exams. What is the Truth about the current state of schooling? What is the Truth about how the country needs to pull together to pay off the debt? I don’t get it from the current set of so-called politicians.

dbrenton

Whilst I am rooting for the Tories to win and begin sorting out the toxic legacy bequeathed by this bunch of incompetents - another five years of socialist constitutional vandalism in particular is too ghastly to contemplate - a Lib/Lab pact would at least ensure that the savage cuts happen on Gordon's watch and rightly consign socialism to oblivion.

seb

In the UK, 34% of voters think a hung parliament is a good thing? In Canada, it was reported, a similar proportion of the public believes in astrology. It's probably true of UK voters that, if asked, a large minority could be shown to be, er, well, morons. The flaw in staging democratic elections is, obviously, that when the morons swing an election their way, the scale of the subsequent disasters is inversely proportionate to the voters' average IQ. Many voters are still just grasping the fact that if you vote for an adolescent, egotistical ninny [Blair], you are rewarded with a government of ninnies. Doh. As P. J. O'Rourke said, democracy means that even chowderheads get to vote.

John Bailey

Just 'who' are these 'Pollsters' Polling?, Poles?.

Isn't it 'weird' how the more McLabour are hated and despised the 'better' they (seem) to do in the 'Polls!'.

Nicholas

Not far short of 34% think government by New Labour is in the country's best interests. I put government by New Labour in the same category as "cruel and unusual punishment" so the capacity for the British to self-harm never ceases to amaze me.

Anan

"I do not understand this impulse". Well duh! This "impulse" is artificially generated by the corrupt pollsters who know that no matter how much they massage the figures, a Labour win is unlikely, and are therefore trying to brainwash the idiots that make up the voting public into actively hoping for a hung parliament by making it look like a majority of the "rest" want one, with yet more fraudulent polls. It's called peer pressure for god's sake.

Either way, Cameron looks burnt out - where is the Cameron of 2007? Long gone. He's giving too much credit to the idiots of this nation. They need to be "bullied" (so to speak) into voting Tory - by constant and vehement attacks. Where was the challenge as in 2007: "Come on Brown, call that election, you can't bottle this one because it would be illegal to do so!"?

Also, BBC recently ran a piece saying "...and the PM talks to Nick Robinson as he takes a few more steps towards calling the election..." all said with broad smiles. What the hell? The election isn't Brown's gift to the nation, it is his legal obligation as yet another joke of a dithering Labour term nears its decrepit end.

Where is the condemnation? Where is the anger at Labour's ills? All Cameron and his band of over-moneyed fools can say is "We can't go on like this..." (and then a sigh). Where's the beef? What a pathetic line, fit only for fossilized, lethargic, anaemic people which make up the conservative activist base. Stop dancing around the creaking base of the party. They are inconsequential and soon to expire. And in the modern age they aren't even needed: we have TV, radio and the internet now.

The people of this country don't want to hear about cuts. They want to be told that the money robbed from the hardworking tiny minority of middle class people as ever-growing taxes, and the vast quantities of printed (and soon worthless bits of paper) money will continue to be given to the underclass' lazy hands so that they can buy the latest, biggest, flat screen HDTV, forever and ever. He must tell that to them: "We welcome your leeaching of the state, we will help you continue it." Then once he's in power he can do all the cuts he wants. That is what Labour do, that is what he must do, and the people are such idiots that they will probably give him a second term and perhaps a third anyway!

Be strong, offer something that the people want, and the oldies of the "no to Euro" "no to smoking ban" idiots will come running back to lick his boots (as the unions came back to Labour after Blair's shifting of the party from militant left to pseudo-capitalistism).

Cameron is NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE. The sad thing is that, neither is anyone else in this nepotistic, lackadaisical joke of an opposition. They don't care for power because they have all the money in the world, and the extortionate taxes don't affect them. Wait till the Labour 4th term - let's see what happens to their fabulous estates then. HAHAHA!

And ultimately, I have come to a profound conclusion: My god! I would make the best leader of the Tories, especially compared to this boiled egg-faced idiot, and the shiny vertexed hairless foetus, and the even older foetus, who preceded him.

djw2009

Maybe the BBC staff support the Lib Dems and are trying to raise his profile in advance of the election?

Colin

Could it be that these people want a hung parliament because they just don't care who wins this one?

Maybe it's because they haven't a clue what the difference is between the three main parties any more.

Or, more likely, they are sick fed up with the rotten state of the current system, and hope a hung parliament will trigger the fiscal meltdown that could lead to a total political reset...

Maybe the 34% are the real visionaries that the UK sorely needs ?

TomTom

The British public has been victimised by its political class whenevber it has a large majority. Only by keeping politicians on a short leash can they be kept honest and responsive to public wishes.

Why should politicians get a 5-Year contact when everyone else gets 6 months, 12 months or nothing ? Five years to fiddle expenses - and which Front Benchers have not ?

Vulture

No-body is actually voting for a hung Parliament.

They are voting (if they vote at all - and increasing numbers do not) - for a particular candidate in a particular constituency. They may not vote for their favourite party - but to keep out the candidate they like least. (Tactical voting).

I remain fairly confident that enough voters are so pissed off with Liebour that that bankrupt party will lose power. I think Liebour know this too - which is why Mandy is floating around the West Country effectively advising Liebour voters to back the Lib dems.

I agree with those who say that Dave has kissed goodbye to at least a million Tory votes by his adopting fluffy pink-green, non-Conservative positions. And by doing so he has not attracted a corresponding number of Liberal voters.

The result may be a 'hung' Parliament : but the Tories are still likely to have more seats than Liebour. If Clegg offers Bruin
a life-support system and props up a dead and rejected Liebour Govt in office he will never be forgiven.

John Wilkes

The real reason that people hanker after a hung parliament is, I am afraid, blindingly obvious. They represent the very sizeable proportion of the population who no longer trust themselves to make a decision about anything. The whole point about the "nanny state" is that it has usurped peoples ability to think and act for themselves. As a consequence they want a hung parliament so that anybody, apart from themselves, can make the decision about what happens next. They also think (for precisely the same reasons) that a consensus of opinions will be for the best, although generally speaking a decision reached on that basis is usually no decision at all as it is not decisive.

Frank P

The ICM pollsters forgot to mention that their poll was conducted at a hen night in Warrington and that the word 'well' was the qualifier that preceded 'hung'; it was a typo omission.

Verity

Paydirt: "I think maybe voters are very much put off by the endless slanging matches of Labour versus Conservative particularly as an election approaches."

You do?

What endless slanging matches?

The Opposition differs from the communists only by the breadth of a hair. They are in accord. Any cosmetic "slanging matches" are mild and manufactured.

There has never been such an ineffective, vapid Leader of the Opposition as the unprincpalied Dave, whose guiding light isn't principles, but his desire to have his feet under the desk at No 10 ... and later on, in Brussels. Wisteria Dave wants a comfy seat on that gravy train.

The reason people want a hung Parliament is along the lines of 'a plague on both your houses' and the hope that Dave will be replaced with a Conservative.

Publius

It seems people don't want cuts, and they don't want tax rises. Go figure.

No doubt they would also like water to run uphill. Perhaps Labour can promise that as well.

Kevin Davis

Given that presumably all Lib Dem voters want a hung Parliament then this means 14% of the population who are not Liberal voters want a hung Parliament - hardly startling news and in fact paints a picture that is somewhat opposite to that you are propounding here.

JONNY

If you need the most obvious reason for the recent Tory slide here are two of them.
YouGov now reveal:
37% think they are more likely to raise taxes (against Labour's 26)
50% think they would make the biggest cuts (against Labour's 26)

The Tories are right of course but
Turkey won't vote for Christmas.
Maybe Ken will make a more human job of explaining things than Boy Goegre.

stephen

Surely some lessons to be learnt here from the first 1994 election. Apparently quite a lot of talk in the then "coffee houses" of a "government of national unity" ahead of the election. Possibly voters don't like a too polarised campaign and Health's taking on of the Miners produced a hung parliament then a Lib Lab pact put together by Michael Foot and others. What lessons to be learnt apart from shorting the pound?

denis cooper

Well said, TomTom.

One day of voting - disregarding earlier postal votes - and some liar gets a five year contract to sit in the House of Commons, with no clause for earlier termination of the contract even if that's what his counter-party - his constituents - decide they want.

Keep these bastards on a short leash; make sure that they're never more than a year from possibly getting the boot.

As for the dyed-in-the-wool Tory idiots who post here - you make me want to vomit.

As far as I'm concerned, your precious party can go and **** itself - which is about all it's good for.

"The English people believes itself to be free; it is gravely mistaken; it is free only during election of members of parliament; as soon as the members are elected, the people is enslaved; it is nothing. In the brief moment of its freedom, the English people makes such a use of that freedom that it deserves to lose it."

Sally Chatterjee

I can see some people above saying those not voting Tory are stupid.

For sure most people don't know the difference between the public deficit and the public debt. But all the more reason for the Conservatives to inform and educate. But those who sneer don't deserve to lead and govern.

If you can't explain that Brown has been the most ruinous Chancellor is history and that the Lib Dems change their mind more often than their underwear then you don't deserve to win the election.

Chris

We have two major parties who have spent my adult lifetime proving that they're absolutely unfit to govern. The only possible outcome of the next election that would not be an absolute disaster for Britain is a hung parliament.

Fergus Pickering

Chris, are you so young that you never lived in the summertime of the blessed Margaret, the greatest peace time Prime Minister since Lloyd George? Ah, in those days one was proud to be British. You should get your father to tell you about it.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

That prat Clegg is asked whether having a porno film maker on board lowers the tone of politics. Nonsense, most are either whore masters or whores. A hung parliament? All hanging high in the air, their legs swinging in the breeze!

Otto

You could argue that the two most successful govt's of the 20th Century were both coalitions....admittedly led by the two greatest pm's of the 20th century.....the reason Cameron and his team are losing ground is obvious.....the British electorate are getting decidely skittish about putting a group that they increasingly perceive as lightweight in office when the country is mired in crisis. And this has happened despite a relentless campaign of attacks on Brown and co by that two thirds of the press which is conservative in outlook......In a sense Brown is increasingly starting to benefit from that age old law that "In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.".....In the case of Brown this is true literally and figuratively....He, Darling and co may be perceived as the people who got us into this mess but they are also seen as those with the only coherent way to get out of it because when you get right down to it this election is about managerial competence on the economy where policy differences are relatively slight and where they differ the weight of evidence backs Brown/Darling .....Then if you look at the other big issues of the day: Iraq/Afghanistan (No difference)....Europe (the Tory party clearly has a majority that wants to exit however crazy that may be and although the public has misgivings about Europe they vaguely perceive this would be idiocy).....Sleaze and trivia (the Ashcroft affair and Hague/Cameron's very obvious complicity has just revived memories of the Thatcher/Major nonsenses that were on the whole rather more extensive and egregious than more recent ones......In the land of the blind the one eyed man is indeed king!!

JohnBUK

Sally Chatterjee, you are absolutely correct. I have always voted Tory since Heath but I find the current leader/party seemingly incompetent in terms of their communication strategy. How they can be on the back foot against a party that has given away so many own goals is beyond belief and one has to consider if they can't get this right.......

TomTom

For sure most people don't know the difference between the public deficit and the public debt.

Do elucidate Sally, focusing on the monetary transmission effects and fiscal/monetary stance under conditions of balance of trade deficit and possibility of collapse in asset-backed lending valuations on bank balance sheets.

You seem to have a clear policy stance so perhaps you could tell the rest of us how you would deal with the fact that ALL major banks are technically insolvent without huge public sector deficits to suppport their asset valuations

Otto

TomTom
March 14th, 2010 8:55pm

.....All the major banks are not insolvent.......some are but many have far stronger asset ratios than before the meltdown (this is particularly true of many of the US banks).....the chicken little stuff (and phony technical questions) are way out of day boyo

Verity

What Choice Please said up at the top of this thread.

GDT - Yes. That is why so many of us are hoping for a hung Parliament. As I have been writing for six months, the only two ways we're going to be able to scrape David Cameron off the Leader position is if the Marxists/Gramsci Party gets back in, or if there's a hung Parliament.

We certainly don't want Brown, Straw, Harman and their ilk in for a term. Therefore, a hung Parliament with another election in a year, with a genuine Tory as Leader, is to be desired and we will consign this communist scum to the silt of the Thames and there bury them.

Ruby Duck

If the next government is not Conservative, the one after will be BNP.

michael

The ready reckoning has arrived, penniless Britain couldn't afford the 'neveragain' bust.

Everybody knows this so now we are into the
"I'm ok jack" status quo politics.

Its all about state handouts.