The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

Memo to Clegg: your approval rating is terrible

The Lib Dem leader's approval rating has fallen from +53 to -53.

By George Eaton Published 01 May 2012 17:08

Earlier today, an apparently confused Nick Clegg told Radio 4's The World At One: "I've given up trying to work out whether my approval rating is good or bad". So, here at The Staggers, we thought we'd help him out.

The graph above shows how Clegg's approval rating (the number of voters who approve of his performance as Liberal Democrat leader minus the number who disapprove) has plummeted since 7 May 2010 from +53 to -53 (figures from YouGov). This is, admittedly, an improvement on the previous week's low of -55. But you don't need to be a psephologist to spot the trend.

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Tags: Nick Clegg Liberal Democrats

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12 comments

Sun, 2012-05-20 00:51 — barrie singleton (not verified)

Nick was one of the array of Westminster worthies whom I alerted to the Conservative Liar Flyer, that broke election law and was used by 9 current MPs. He made no reply. The Liar Flyer can be viewed at "Spoil Party Games".
'D' MOCK CRASS Y?

Wed, 2012-05-02 14:15 — elrob

Is he a Tory?
The Lib Dems voted him their leader. I was fed up with New Labour by 2005 and, for the first time, did not vote. I gave the Lib Dems a look afterwards, thinking: why be tribal?
They voted Clegg their leader, so I tried finding out about him. It taught me never to trust the Lib Dems.
So often position themselves as centre Left, at least in London. Sorry, they are not. And I will never vote for them. I remain tribal. That is, if Labour is good enough, I'll vote for it; if not, I'll either abstain or vote for a minor party, Red, Green, whatever.

The Lib Dems are getting what they voted for, and the rest of us have to suffer, partly thanks to those - such as the Guardian newspaper - who were duped into voting for them. Thanks!

Wed, 2012-05-02 12:25 — A.MARIE (not verified)

He is a liar, he is useless, he knows he's not lived up to anything he supposedly stood for even his own party supporters are turning against him, he should be banned from politics altogether. At least with the Tories we knew what to expect, i.e. student fees, he will be the making of leading Lib Dem's to extinction! HES A TORY

Wed, 2012-05-02 12:25 — A.MARIE (not verified)

Wed, 2012-05-02 09:35 — GoodbyeLibcons (not verified)

He made a pledge to get rid of tuition fees the focus of his election campaign, then voted to treble them. He was never going to recover from that and he seems to have undone several decades of building up Liberal Democrat support at local level on which Parliamentary success was built.

Tue, 2012-05-01 20:54 — martybee (not verified)

Mirror mirror on the wall who is worstest of them all...Its a bit like judging an inverse beauty competition...are they judging policy or personality??

Tue, 2012-05-01 20:49 — matthew fox (not verified)

I doubt today figures, showing 200,000 low income families took a big hit will help Clever Cleggy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/may/01/working-tax-credit-change...

Tue, 2012-05-01 20:12 — Dark Heart of Toryland (not verified)

I heard the interview. He performed so abysmally I almost felt sorry for him. But not quite.

Tue, 2012-05-01 19:43 — Hu Ru (not verified)

"I've given up trying to work out whether my approval rating is good or bad"

What he means is everyone else is wrong, again - if only he was as clever as he thought he was

Tue, 2012-05-01 17:33 — mcquade

Ah but that poll just asks people if they agree that "Nick Clegg is turning out to be a good leader of the Liberal Democrats" which is not the same thing as asking if they approve of him as a DPM and of what he is doing in government.