Third of FG supporters prefer Gilmore as Taoiseach

Biggins · 21-12-2010 02:29PM #1

Third of FG supporters prefer Gilmore as Taoiseach

More than a third of Fine Gael voters think Eamon Gilmore would make a better Taoiseach than party leader Enda Kenny, a new poll has revealed.

The Red C poll, commissioned by Paddy Power bookmakers, found that 34% of Fine Gael voters would choose Mr Gilmore over Mr Kenny when asked to put party support aside and choose the most suitable Taoiseach.

The survey also found that barely more than half of Fine Gael supporters (51%) would favour Mr Kenny as Taoiseach, with only 24% of all of those polled favouring the Castlebar native.

The news is not good for Brian Cowen either, with less than half (45%) of Fianna Fáil supporters favouring his re-election as Taoiseach. Only 11% of those polled overall favoured Mr Cowen to lead the country.

Mr Gilmore remains the nation’s favourite choice to become the next Taoiseach, with 45% of all respondents choosing the Labour Party leader - almost twice the number supporting Mr Kenny - including 79% of his own party’s supporters.

Support for Mr Gilmore is highest among middle 35-54 year old age groups, but is relatively consistent across most demographic groups.

Mr Kenny gets quite high levels of support among the youngest 18-34 year old age groups, but does poorly among key 35-54 year olds.

His support is also very weak in Munster, and even in Connaught/Ulster it remains depressed.

Red C interviewed a random sample of 1008 adults aged 18+ by telephone between the Dec 13-15, 2010.

Source: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/third-of-fg-supporters-prefer-gilmore-as-taoiseach-486477.html#ixzz18kxnJF8P

I can understand why to be honest.

maynooth_rules · 21-12-2010 08:16PM

Why do we place so much importance on the leader of our political parties. Can people not look beyond the leader. Id prefer a raw turnip to Biffo, but that doesnt mean anything

later12 · 21-12-2010 08:34PM

Don't rule out another heave in FG.

Deputies and senators are aware that an election is coming, they are currently at home in their constituencies and away from the herd, they are highly open, as all politicians tend to be, to persuasion. Do not be surprised if there is another heave against Kenny in January, after all it was a poll like this under similar circumstances during a weekend which started the last one.

Sully · 21-12-2010 10:28PM

This poll is utterly pointless. People have already been asked who they prefer. It was already done also.

As for another heave - snow chance. Firstly, the last heave damaged the party image. Secondly, grumbling in consistencies isn't that bad as most people want to move on and just focus on winning the election rather then replacing (or attempting to) the leader in another dramatic media whoring while the country cries out for change.

lugha · 21-12-2010 10:45PM

Biggins wrote: »

I can understand why to be honest.

I can’t, to be equally honest. If it was the height of the (alleged!) boom I could understand folk going to celebrity mode when assessing politicians. It didn’t seem (!) to matter which centre-right led government was in charge. But now, in the depths of the greatest crisis in our history, you would think that the X factor type thinking that many critics of Kenny adopt would be considered not quite appropriate, that a more reasoned analysis might be brought to bear. Alas.

kaiser sauze · 21-12-2010 11:05PM

Irish people putting charisma above ability. SHOCKER!

ArtSmart · 22-12-2010 12:19AM

wonder why labour dropped 5 points. any thoughts?

The Volt · 22-12-2010 12:49AM

ArtSmart wrote: »

wonder why labour dropped 5 points. any thoughts?

Not been brave enough. Sinn Fein are taking thousands of votes of Labour.

PeterIanStaker · 23-12-2010 12:10AM

Polls = free headlines

bmaxi · 23-12-2010 11:05AM

kaiser sauze wrote: »

Irish people putting charisma above ability. SHOCKER!

Charisma takes different forms. Many thought Ahern was charismatic, I personally thought he was a sickening sycophant.
Kenny is not a good communicator so people in FG feel their message is not getting across. He is a poor debater in the Dáil and is bullied by the likes of Cowen. He tries to make points with banal clichés which make me cringe.
People have lost confidence in politicians and watching Kenny perform, no matter how competent he is in his own right, does not go any way to restoring it.
Above all, within any political party, it's votes that count and Kenny is seen as a liability in this area.

Rocky1948 · 23-12-2010 12:41PM

maynooth_rules wrote: »

Why do we place so much importance on the leader of our political parties. Can people not look beyond the leader. Id prefer a raw turnip to Biffo, but that doesnt mean anything

This poll shows that clearly the people don't place so much on importance on the leader. Clearly it isn't that important to people and they consider other issues more important. Maybe they like the FG team more (i.e front bench), or their local FG candidate more or FG's polices more or maybe they don't really have an opinion on who they prefer, but if they have to choose they just pick Gilmore. All we know is that despite people claiming they like Gilmore more than Kenny, FG are going up and Labour are going down in the polls and FG were 11% higher in the last one.

Polls done around election time, also should that leadership of the parties isn't that big an issue. Their local candidate and the polices and people that represent the parties in general are more important.

This is all a media driven thing and is largely nonsense. Another point in all this is Gilmore's satisfaction rating at the last poll was lower than Kenny's at the time of the last general election. Yet the media claim that everyone loves Gilmore and everyone hated Kenny at the time of the last general election. As I said it's media driven and nonsense.

phantom_lord · 23-12-2010 02:33PM

How meaningful is a poll of a thousand people by telephone?

meglome · 24-12-2010 10:28AM

kaiser sauze wrote: »

Irish people putting charisma above ability. SHOCKER!

Sadly very true. Also very sadly true if Kenny isn't replaced Fine Gael will lose seats.

Rocky1948 · 30-12-2010 06:45PM

meglome wrote: »

Sadly very true. Also very sadly true if Kenny isn't replaced Fine Gael will lose seats.

Not according to the recent polls which have Fine Gael between 30% and 34%, above what they got in the last general election.

johnnyskeleton · 30-12-2010 07:21PM

lugha wrote: »

I can’t, to be equally honest. If it was the height of the (alleged!) boom I could understand folk going to celebrity mode when assessing politicians. It didn’t seem (!) to matter which centre-right led government was in charge. But now, in the depths of the greatest crisis in our history, you would think that the X factor type thinking that many critics of Kenny adopt would be considered not quite appropriate, that a more reasoned analysis might be brought to bear. Alas.

People don't dislike Kenny because he doesn't have some mystical X factor. They dislike him because he is just as slippery a fish as Cowen.

People are crying out for honest, accountable politicians, not more of the same parish pump nonsense that got us into this problem.

Denerick · 30-12-2010 10:03PM

Gilmore is not charismatic. People look at Kenny and see a halfwit hailing from the same ugly reliable sources of Irish politics, soaked in the parish pump. People see Cowen and see FF. People see Gilmore and they see something other than parish pumps and FF. His popularity won't transfer to the party anyway as it happens, people in parliamentary democracies rarely vote for the party leader. Just look at the last British general election. Labour did surprisingly well with Brown and the Libdems under the immensely popular Clegg collapsed.

Jayuu · 31-12-2010 02:05PM

Denerick wrote: »

His popularity won't transfer to the party anyway as it happens, people in parliamentary democracies rarely vote for the party leader. Just look at the last British general election. Labour did surprisingly well with Brown and the Libdems under the immensely popular Clegg collapsed.

A very good point. This is not a presidential style election no matter how much the media try to make it one.

After the first UK debate the LibDems and Clegg surged in all the polls and even keep most of that surge until election day and people were faced with a ballot paper that didn't have Nick Clegg's name on it, whereupon they voted for a party as opposed to an individual and the LibDems actually lost seats. Expect the same to happen here in Ireland.

Wide Road · 31-12-2010 02:32PM

Biggins wrote: »

Third of FG supporters prefer Gilmore as Taoiseach

Its surprising that it's only a third.

unit 1 · 31-12-2010 08:55PM

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

People don't dislike Kenny because he doesn't have some mystical X factor. They dislike him because he is just as slippery a fish as Cowen.

People are crying out for honest, accountable politicians, not more of the same parish pump nonsense that got us into this problem.

OMG Enda Kenny = Brian Cowen.
Just where did you get this idea from.

InchicoreDude · 31-12-2010 11:01PM

People don't dislike Kenny because he doesn't have some mystical X factor. They dislike him because he is just as slippery a fish as Cowen.

Ok, you are entitled to your opinion. But at least back it up with some reason, Why do you think "he is just as slippery a fish as Cowen"?

Third of FG supporters prefer Gilmore as Taoiseach

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