Poll Archive

The Times Party Conference Poll 2007

Fieldwork: September 7th 2007 - September 9th 2007

published by The Times

Click here to download detailed results 161k

Statements About the Liberal Democrats

[Change on last year's pre-conference poll in brackets where applicable]

	All	Men	Women	AB	C1	C2	DE	Con	Lab	LD
The Liberal Democrats are basically a protest vote party because realistically they have no chance of ever forming a government.	69% (+8%)	71%	68%	69%	69%	72%	68%	84%	73%	41%
Liberal Democrats seem decent people, but their policies probably don't really add up.	68% (+2%)	70%	66%	67%	65%	73%	68%	81%	74%	41%
If the Liberal Democrats are to stand any chance of making an impact they need to replace Ming Campbell with a younger and more charismatic leader.	63%	61%	64%	65%	60%	65%	63%	68%	67%	67%
The Liberal Democrat policy of raising taxes on environmentally damaging behaviour and using the money to cut taxes like income tax is the right way to address the problem of climate change.	50%	50%	49%	49%	52%	55%	43%	46%	48%	71%

Topical Questions

Would you say that Britain is on the right track at the moment, or do you think the country going off in the wrong direction?

	All	Men	Women	AB	C1	C2	DE	Con	Lab	LD
Right track	30%	29%	30%	33%	35%	16%	33%	11%	57%	31%
Wrong direction	67%	67%	67%	61%	62%	83%	66%	88%	39%	64%
net 'right track'	-37%	-38%	-37%	-28%	-27%	-67%	-33%	-77%	18%	-33%

After ten years of Labour government some people say that it is time for a change in Britain, while other people disagree and say that it is better to stick with the devil you know. Which of these is closest to your view?

	All	Men	Women	AB	C1	C2	DE	Con	Lab	LD
Time for a change	54%	57%	52%	49%	57%	62%	50%	91%	14%	74%
Devil you know	43%	40%	45%	47%	40%	36%	46%	8%	85%	23%
net 'time for a change'	11%	17%	7%	2%	17%	26%	4%	83%	-71%	51%

If you had to choose between the two, who would you rather have as Prime Minister, Gordon Brown or David Cameron ?

	All	Men	Women	AB	C1	C2	DE	Con	Lab	LD
Gordon Brown	55%	54%	56%	55%	60%	47%	55%	18%	88%	65%
David Cameron	36%	38%	35%	39%	31%	44%	33%	80%	11%	27%
Net Brown	19%	16%	21%	16%	29%	3%	22%	-62%	77%	38%

If Britain's economy were to face problems in the months or years ahead, who would you most trust to deal with it in the best interests of Britain? (Rotate order) a) David Cameron & the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, or b) Gordon Brown & the new Chancellor of the Exchequer Alastair Darling?

	All	Men	Women	AB	C1	C2	DE	Con	Lab	LD
Brown & Darling	61%	64%	58%	61%	61%	58%	62%	23%	92%	67%
Cameron & Osborne	27%	26%	28%	28%	26%	33%	23%	71%	6%	19%
Net Brown & Darling	34%	38%	30%	33%	35%	25%	39%	-48%	86%	48%

The Political Spectrum

Journalists often discuss politics on the basis of a left-right political spectrum and talk about politicians being on the left or on the right, or being left wing or right wing. Thinking about your own political views, roughly where do you think you are on the left-right political spectrum? (1 to 10 scale, with 1 being extremely left-wing and 10 being extremely right-wing.)

Average voter	5.33
Labour voters	5.03
Conservative voters	6.30
Liberal Democrat voters	4.63

Now, thinking about the main political parties and what they stand for currently, I'd like you to say where you think each of them is at the moment on the same left-right spectrum?

The Labour Party	5.20
The Conservative Party	5.76
The Liberal Democrats	4.53

Now thinking about the leaders of the three main political parties and what they stand for currently, I'd like you to say where you think each of them is on the same left-right spectrum?

Tony Blair	5.29
Gordon Brown	5.16
David Cameron	5.63
Menzies Campbell	4.66

1 is extremely left-wing, 10 is extremely right-wing and 5 is the centre.

The Liberal Democrats	Liberal Democrat Voters	Menzies Campbell	Labour Voters	Gordon Brown	The Labour Party	Tony Blair	Average voter	David Cameron	The Conservative Party	Conservative Voters
4.53	4.63	4.66	5.03	5.16	5.2	5.29	5.33	5.63	5.76	6.3

Populus interviewed a random sample of 1004 adults aged 18+ by telephone between 7th September 2007 and 9th September 2007. Interviews were conducted across England and the results have been weighted to be representative of all English adults. Populus is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules. For a full description of the methods we use, please click here.

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