Is politics the battle of the generations?
| Which one of the following two options do you think would be best for Britain? (ICM) | all | 18-24 % | 25-34 % | 35-44 % | 45-54 % | 55-64 % | 65+ % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A coalition of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats | 32 | 21 | 25 | 27 | 30 | 36 | 47 |
| Labour governing in its own right | 26 | 24 | 31 | 29 | 28 | 25 | 20 |
| Neither | 29 | 37 | 29 | 29 | 33 | 28 | 24 |
| Dont’ Know | 12 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 10 | 11 |
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We’ve now got the detail from yesterday’s controversial ICM poll which sought to test response putting two main options – the coalition and Labour. The only questions, apart from those to gather weighting information, were the ones reported.
This wasn’t a voting intention poll and the findings were not past vote weighted. So there was no attempt to produce a politically balanced sample which, in this case, probably impacted negatively on the Labour figures.
For me the most interesting extra data comes from the responses of the different age segments to the main question. The coalition has a huge lead amongst the 65 plus group, a reasonable lead amongst the 55-64s, but going down the age range this drops sharply and support for Labour increases. Amongst those 44 and under Labour is ahead.
So an interesting first step in testing opinion but I would have been happier if it had been past vote weighted.