Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Apathy 2010

Most people have very little interest in politics.

If you are reading political blogs you are probably an exception, but most people cannot name more than half a dozen MPs. If you can name several Lib Dem front benchers then you are probably in the most politically informed 5% of the population. If you know what a front bencher is then you are in the top 50%.

The Times reports that most voters have completely misattributed which policy each party has on VAT despite it being the main focus of discussion for the first week of the campaign, this echoes what I found from personal experience in relation to another area of policy.

Basically almost nothing that is said over the next few weeks will have any impact with the voters and what does have an effect will probably not be in the way that might be predicted.

3 comments:

JuliaM said...

I wonder if the various gaffes - MacLennan's sacking, the cancer leaflet debacle, etc - will resonate with voters, or if they too are mostly just exciting for political pundits and media folks?

Matthew said...

I hope I am pretty clued up but I have to admit the MacLennan sacking has passed me by completely. So perhaps not.

I think the more general problem as with the NI issue is perhaps exacerbated by negative campaigning. The Conservatives have as many posters of Gordon Brown as they seem to of David Cameron, and although obviously they are associated with negative slogans, I think there's enough in 'all publicity is good publicity' to suggest they are a bit of a failure.

Ross said...

"I wonder if the various gaffes - MacLennan's sacking, the cancer leaflet debacle, etc - will resonate with voters"

They might resonate, but not in any predicatable manner. Voters may think it was the Tories who sent out the cancer leaflets or that the claims in the leaflets are correct.

Regarding the Brown posters that the Tories are using, at the Political Betting site they have always said that the Tories always seem to do well when Cameron himself is particularly visible so it could be a mistake to focus on Brown.