POLL: If the public don’t like Jeremy Corbyn, which of his policies do they oppose?

Last Updated: January 15, 2017By Tags: , , , , , ,

Jeremy Corbyn: Is it his unflinching determination to stand up for the poor, the vulnerable and the disenfranchised that has turned the general public against him?

Much is being made of the difference between two polls on the National Health Service – the first suggests the Conservatives would handle the NHS crisis better than Labour; the second suggests the opposite.

The difference is that Jeremy Corbyn’s name is attached to the first poll.

The obvious question must be: What is it about Jeremy Corbyn that the general public (we are told) dislikes so strongly?

The membership of the Labour Party – Europe’s largest political organisation, since he took over as leader – absolutely love him. Not in a cultish way, but because he stands for policies they admire and would like to see returned to the British political debate.

But the inference from the polls is that the public at large dislike Mr Corbyn – and therefore do not want these policies.

For clarity, here is an infographic showing his many policy objectives:

Now, let’s have a few poll questions. These are only for people who oppose Mr Corbyn:

[polldaddy poll=9637022]

Alternatively, perhaps it is Mr Corbyn himself who causes offence?

If so, please use the contact form below to explain exactly why you think he, personally, is bad for the United Kingdom; why you believe he is not a good leader of the Labour Party; why you think he does not lead a government-in-waiting. Please do not use the form to write simple abuse as this will not be accepted as a reasonable argument (why would anybody think it was?) and your comment will be deleted.

I’ll publish some preliminary results tomorrow, and a final analysis when I’m satisfied that everybody who wants to respond has done so.

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28 Comments

  1. David Young January 15, 2017 at 3:53 pm - Reply

    How can anybody in their right mind believe that the Tories will handle the NHS crisis the best? They are patently NOT doing so!

    • James January 17, 2017 at 10:04 am - Reply

      Exactly! The only people that seem to think the Tories will handle the NHS the best are the Jeremy Corbyn supporters, since it is they who wish to damn us to losing another GE by having an unelectable (as Prime Minister before someone uses the tires ‘b-b-but he was elected’ line) leader.

      • Mike Sivier January 19, 2017 at 1:14 pm - Reply

        Doubletalk.
        You’re saying you don’t like Mr Corbyn, but you want his supporters to look bad so you’re trying to push the blame onto them.
        Have a little honesty, please.

  2. Maureen Fitzsimmons (@mojos55) January 15, 2017 at 4:41 pm - Reply

    The poll will not be shared to fb ?

    • Mike Sivier January 15, 2017 at 5:25 pm - Reply

      It’s a poll on the blog site. Why? Can’t people visit the blog and provide their answers there? Your question is confusing.

      • Anna Hubbard January 16, 2017 at 8:03 am - Reply

        I’ve shared you blog and poll no problem. I see over eight two percent for ‘other’. Are they being specific as to what the ‘other’ is?

  3. rupertrlmitchell January 15, 2017 at 4:41 pm - Reply

    This will be very interesting Mike and a very good idea; what a pity we have a biased press as this questionnaire would be so useful if it were published for those who don’t have access to the internet.

  4. Joanna Linden January 15, 2017 at 9:09 pm - Reply

    One word answers the question ‘Why do people respond this way to Jeremy Corbyn?’, I think.
    Propaganda

  5. Paul K January 15, 2017 at 10:36 pm - Reply

    Wow, 80 people oppose a ‘maximum wage’, yet I’m pretty confident that nobody who clicked that one would EVER be affected by it. Rather like the American Tea Party saps duped into opposing the proposed ‘estate tax’, it seems it’s easy to fool people here into voting against their own interests by scare-mongering about the economy

    • James January 17, 2017 at 9:58 am - Reply

      “Personally” affected, no.

      Indirectly affected by the problems it would cause investors… that’s a whole other matter.

      There have been no economic grounds for a maximum wage, other than principle. There’s no proof anyone at the bottom would be positively affected by it.

      • Mike Sivier January 19, 2017 at 1:17 pm - Reply

        “Problems it would cause investors”?
        What, the problems of having lots more money in the company bank accounts, with which to invest in improvements?
        The problems of knowing what to do with that cash?
        Get a grip.

  6. clouty January 16, 2017 at 9:04 am - Reply

    Will we learn the gist of what were the ‘other’ policies that 251 (at the mo) people oppose?

    • Mike Sivier January 16, 2017 at 10:50 am - Reply

      Yes – if they’ve used the feedback form to let us know.

    • John January 16, 2017 at 11:06 pm - Reply

      Better had, otherwise the survey is a bit pointless!

      • Mike Sivier January 18, 2017 at 3:19 am - Reply

        Well, you did.

  7. Jan Forrest January 16, 2017 at 9:42 am - Reply

    Of course the Conservatives are the best people to stop the rot in the NHS.

    All they have to do is reverse the things they’re doing that is destroying it!

  8. Paul January 16, 2017 at 11:25 am - Reply

    Based on conversations I’ve had with people it’s Corbyn’s apparent lack of energy, decisiveness, cleverness and potential competence that makes doubt and question marks pop into their minds. A lot of people, even Labour people, let’s be honest, look at Corbyn and see a mediocre individual of average to low achievement, completely undistinguished as far as a non-political career, professional expertise and academic achievement are concerned, who they can’t quite bring themselves to invest their trust in to make critical and crucial choices, on their behalf and on the behalf of their families, when it comes to the office of Prime Minister.

    It’s not all about policy, sadly, but about personality.

    I cannot imagine how Mr Corbyn can ever win the confidence of people who are, or have become, quite so detached and aloof to Jeremy Corbyn as a person. Too many people are tepid to him as a man and therefore to his message as a political leader. It shouldn’t be like that but it is. Policy should trump personality but sadly, in Brown’s, Miliband’s and now Corbyn’s case it doesn’t.

    • Mike Sivier January 16, 2017 at 11:36 am - Reply

      He’s laid-back, certainly, but that’s not a lack of energy – it’s being comfortable with his subject matter. What’s indecisive or un-clever about him? He managed to win last year’s Labour leadership election when his opponents were doing everything to stack the odds against him, and that takes some doing! And what on Earth do you mean by “potential competence”? Are you saying your contacts don’t think he’ll be able to do his job, based on their own personal opinions of him? Nobody can use that as a yardstick; we’d all need to know the people you mention and understand their personal biases and prejudices.
      You refer to “a lot of people” – how many? Who? What are their preferences and prejudices? You don’t provide enough information for us to evaluate what you’re offering. And the comments that follow are ridiculous. He’s not a person of “average to low achievement”; he’s the leader of Europe’s largest political party – a party that became Europe’s largest because he is the leader!
      All you are doing is demonstrating the divide between fact and opinion – especially opinion based on slanted media coverage.

      • Paul January 16, 2017 at 12:57 pm - Reply

        Not “contacts”, Mike, just family, friends, workmates and casual acquaintances. Here’s an example of the sort of thing I heard over the weekend, in direct speech:

        “I’d vote for a good man, or lady, much more capable than me, or even, at a pinch, only as competent as me, but not for a geezer obviously less competent and less able than me to become my Prime Minister.”

        This is fairly typical of the sort of thing I hear from “ordinary” people many of whom have voted Labour in the past. See, it’s one thing to be the leader of a gang, wholly inspiring to and loved by a gang, and another to have the broad appeal necessary to win support from both devoted gang members and sceptical outsiders alike. THAT is a quality needed in any political leader in Great Britain, seeking to garner enough support from committed party members and floating unaffiliated voters to end up with a five year tenancy on 10 Downing Street.

        Very sadly Corbyn lacks that quality.

        • Mike Sivier February 7, 2017 at 10:59 am - Reply

          You’ve got people comparing themselves with Jeremy Corbyn and finding him wanting? Are they big company executives, then?
          It takes a lot of character and a lot of organisation to become an MP and remain one for more than 30 years. Even more to become leader of a political party and defeat an attempted coup within that party. Did you hear anybody putting the arguments in favour of Corbyn to these people? Did you put them forward, even if as Devil’s advocate? Or were people happy to just let it go without comment?
          It seems to me that you are too willing to accept false claims about this man.

      • James January 17, 2017 at 10:01 am - Reply

        Mike, membership numbers never translate to votes. Considering over half of Labour *voters* (a much more important metric than members) think Corbyn would not make a better PM than May, that suggests a large risk that a majority of Labour voters won’t even vote Labour at the next election.

        It doesn’t matter if it’s Europe’s largest political party or not if it won’t get in power. At the moment, essentially it’s a very large “movement”, which by itself is not going to achieve much.

        • Mike Sivier January 19, 2017 at 1:15 pm - Reply

          Who says half of Labour voters think Corbyn wouldn’t be better than May? Your polling companies? When did they ever ask more than 300,000 people?
          They didn’t. You are relying on supposition based on what we can expect to be a slanted survey.

    • Anna Hubbard January 17, 2017 at 5:29 am - Reply

      Undistinguished in regard to academic achievement. I’m not going to argue with that but I’d be interested to know what level of academic achievement you think would be appropriate in regard to leading an opposition and governing?

      You’ve spoken about what you think other people think of Corbyn. What do you think of him? I ask because it’s something I’ve noticed happens quite frequently – “It’s not me, it’s everyone else”. Who is the everyone else?

  9. Brian Henderson January 16, 2017 at 1:55 pm - Reply

    What amazes me is that people are going to continue to vote for people who are obviously making the world a worse place for them. Somehow, the papers and other public institutions seem to be able to persuade people to vote as if they are rich, when the vast majority of them are not much better off than me. I suppose they are playing on peoples dreams, and unless we can get people to be more realistic, this will continue until things are so bad that only something radical will change things for the better,

  10. Tim January 17, 2017 at 8:42 am - Reply

    What is the policy on nuclear weapons please?

    • Mike Sivier January 18, 2017 at 3:17 am - Reply

      Technically it remains support for an at-sea nuclear deterrent coupled with work towards a multi-lateral cut in the number of nuclear weapons in the world.
      Mr Corbyn did not want Labour to support the renewal of Trident, but had to give up on this as he did not have the support of the PLP and in any case the Tory government had a vote lined up on it and, even if every Labour MP voted against it, that would not have been enough to stop the renewal being approved. If I recall correctly, he made it a conscience vote, with every Labour MP voting according to his or her personal opinion.

  11. James January 17, 2017 at 9:56 am - Reply

    These aren’t “policies”, though, are they? They’re ideas. They don’t mean anything and unless he can actually provide an explanation of how he’d achieve them (which as abysmally incompetent he is), it’s irrelevant what he wants to do. And I say this as someone who voted for him the first time in 2015 – my biggest mistake

    • Mike Sivier January 19, 2017 at 1:19 pm - Reply

      That isn’t an argument, though, is it? It’s semantics. You don’t want to accept they’re policies so you belittle them by calling them ideas instead. They’re all costed. Mr Corbyn knows exactly how he’s going to achieve them. But you want to run them down. He’ll achieve them by allocating cash towards them and instructing the civil service to carry them out, in the same way as the Tories have always achieved their “ideas”.

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