Sunday, October 18, 2015
Our fragile democracy - who would back a military coup?
The real issue of course is why YouGov would want to include in its opinion polling a question about supporting a military coup? Do they know something that we don't?
The rather disturbing news is that one in four voters could envisage supporting such a coup. Is Prime Minister's Question Time really that bad?
By far the biggest backers for a military takeover of our civilian government were people who vote for UKIP. Apparently, as many as 44 per cent of Ukip voters would swear allegiance to some power-mad General who thinks he knows better than the population at large.
Goodness knows what the outcome would have been if YouGov had restrictes its polling solely to those attending UKIP Conferences.
The Independent adds that only 18 per cent of Labour voters and 20 per cent of those who supported the Liberal Democrats in the 2015 elections said they would support a coup, whilst of those who voted Conservative, 26 per cent said they could envisage backing a military takeover of the government.
The polling company goes further, it poses some scenarios to those it is surveying as to how a coup would come about. The most popular scenario for the imagined coup was the introduction of government legislation to dismantle the armed forces.
Other popular suggested scenarios for a coup were the abolition of the monarchy, supported by 41 per cent of those who could imagine backing a coup, and the scrapping of the UK's nuclear deterrent, supported by 39 per cent. Meanwhile, 22 per cent said they would back a coup if Boris Johson became prime minister.
This of course opens up a whole new line of questioning: which potential replacement for David Cameron would get the most people onto the streets behind an armed takever? Surely Boris would not be the favourite in such a poll. Nominees in the comments please.
The rather disturbing news is that one in four voters could envisage supporting such a coup. Is Prime Minister's Question Time really that bad?
By far the biggest backers for a military takeover of our civilian government were people who vote for UKIP. Apparently, as many as 44 per cent of Ukip voters would swear allegiance to some power-mad General who thinks he knows better than the population at large.
Goodness knows what the outcome would have been if YouGov had restrictes its polling solely to those attending UKIP Conferences.
The Independent adds that only 18 per cent of Labour voters and 20 per cent of those who supported the Liberal Democrats in the 2015 elections said they would support a coup, whilst of those who voted Conservative, 26 per cent said they could envisage backing a military takeover of the government.
The polling company goes further, it poses some scenarios to those it is surveying as to how a coup would come about. The most popular scenario for the imagined coup was the introduction of government legislation to dismantle the armed forces.
Other popular suggested scenarios for a coup were the abolition of the monarchy, supported by 41 per cent of those who could imagine backing a coup, and the scrapping of the UK's nuclear deterrent, supported by 39 per cent. Meanwhile, 22 per cent said they would back a coup if Boris Johson became prime minister.
This of course opens up a whole new line of questioning: which potential replacement for David Cameron would get the most people onto the streets behind an armed takever? Surely Boris would not be the favourite in such a poll. Nominees in the comments please.
Comments:
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Surely there's some sort of double-scoring system needed here - you need a potential Tory whom the military would rise against AND who would bring people out onto the streets in their favour.
That rules out IDS (who would surely not be very publically acceptable but whose ties to the military would see him through) but I can see (hazily, possibly with the aid of the necessary chemical enhancement) a Police-backed coup against Theresa May...
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That rules out IDS (who would surely not be very publically acceptable but whose ties to the military would see him through) but I can see (hazily, possibly with the aid of the necessary chemical enhancement) a Police-backed coup against Theresa May...
# posted by 
: 7:16 PM
: 7:16 PM<< Home
