Few crumbs for party in ICM data feast

The pollster, ICM, has now made available 41 pages of detailed data on its Lib Dem leadership poll that appeared in the Guardian on Wednesday.

It will be recalled that the survey was unusual in that it was carried out online and part involved respondents watching video clips of the candidates.

Even allowing for the fact that the sample was very small the results were shocking and showed the challenge the party faces even without the publicity nightmare of the past few weeks.

For the overwhelming majority of its own voters failed to put names to faces of those who have put themselves forward to lead the party.

Just 34% of those who said they had voted Lib Dem last May could identify correctly Menzies Campbell.

Only 30% got Simon Hughes right and Chris Huhne was recognised by a mere 5%. And these were Lib Dem voters. The proportions were even worse amongst all voters.

Two percent of the Lib Dems thought Simon Hughes was “Simon Jenkins” and 1% named him as “Michael Hughes”.

A staggering 41% of the Lib Dem voters ticked the “none/nothing/never heard of him” box for Campbell. Hughes rating here was slightly better at 34% and the relative newcomer, Huhne got a a 67% “none/nothing/never heard of him” rating.

More than a fifth of the Lib Dem voters of last May thought Campbell was too old

In many ways this is a reminder to the PBC community that those of us with an abiding interest in politics and political outcomes are a very small minority of the population as a whole. Many people simply do not care.

In the betting the money has continued to go on Campbell who is now at 0.41/1 on Betfair.

Mike Smithson