Despite media bias, #occupyLSX maintains wide public support
5:26 pm - October 30th 2011
| Tweet | Share on Tumblr |
Despite attempts by the right-wing media to malign them, the #occupyLSX protesters in London maintain widespread support amongst voters.
A poll by YouGov asked for the Sunday Times today: Regardless of whether or not you agree with them protesting outside St Paul’s Cathedral, do you support or oppose the aims of the protesters?
39% of people questioned supported them, while only 26% opposed them. 35% were not sure.
Disappointingly however, there was more support for legal action to remove the protesters from outside St Paul’s Cathedral. 47% thought the Cathedral should take legal action, while 39% were opposed to such an action. 13% didn’t know.
A large proportion also felt Dr Giles Fraser, the former Chancellor of the Cathedral, was wrong to resign (42%) over the controversy. 31% said he was right to resign while 27% weren’t sure.
Similar support for the #occupy movement has been found by other polling.
An ICM poll last week asked:
You may have seen or heard that there are currently protests against capitalism and the financial system around the world, including on Wall Street in New York and in the City of London. Which one of the following statements do you most agree with?
38% of responders chose: ‘The protesters are naive; there is no practical alternative to capitalism – the point is to get it moving again’.
But a massive 52% chose: ‘The protesters are right to want to call time on a system that puts profit before people’
(‘both’ was chosen by 2% while 3% chose ‘neither’ and 6% didn’t know)
| Tweet | Share on Tumblr |  |
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
· Other posts by Sunny Hundal
Story Filed Under: News
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Reader comments
If those protesters want public support, they’re going to need to stop marginalising themselves by naively criticising capitalism.
“Naively criticising capitalism”? What does that mean exactly?
Do you think neoliberalism is unassailable?
why dont they protest outside the regents park mosque or the bank of england – oh yes then the police might do something?!?!
neoliberalism is unassailable?? what does that mean?
“Do you think neoliberalism is unassailable?”
This recently published book on market failure has been well-reviewed in business media:
John Cassidy: How Markets Fail – The Logic of Economic Calamities (Penguin Books)
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_47/b4156079791251.htm
The real problem is rather that the enthusiasts for the neoliberalism cause don’t want to know about the extensive literature on market failures. Try that book by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff: This Time Is Different – 8oo years of financial crises (Princeton UP, 2009).
@1: they’re going to need to stop marginalising themselves by naively criticising capitalism.
They should instead criticise crony-capitalism and call for it to be replaced by the capitalism that works for the 99%.
@2 – dude, I was being sarcastic
they are generating a lot of money through donations as well apparently. I think they need a bank like the Wall st guys did
So a lot people think the bankers and the rich are taking the mickey. Great. Now what?
Restrict the pay and bonusses of those at the top? Increase taxes on high earners?
Fine. But what’s going to make things change so that there aren’t high rates of youth unemployment, and situations like this London inner-city TV drama will be showing on Channel 4 tomorow?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/30/top-boy-reviewed-by-hackney-residents-panel?newsfeed=true
5
Capitalism that works for the 99%? There’s only one system that can do that, it’s called socialism.
@9: “There’s only one system that can do that, it’s called socialism.”
Which of the 57 varieties of socialism?
Personally, I think millineryism has a lot going for it.
I doubt the 39% support the abolition of capitalism. It would be helpful if we had some idea of what they believe the protesters stand for apart from “we don’t like the current system and something needs to be done to change it”
And yet when 35-40% of people support the Conservative Party, you describe that as “haemorraghing public support”…
“Despite media bias, XXXXX maintains wide public support”
Replace XXXX with numerous phrases such as “stopping all immigration”, “deporting illegal immigrants” “capital punishment” and so on, and you form true propositions. However, they would not make the headline of a post on LP. They would fall into the “populist” category, see.
Having said that, a wide swathe of the population whose opinions were taken into account would not know what capitalism is, apart from a vague idea that it is “a nasty greedy thing to do with bankers”. Having lived in the USSR, loudly proclaimed as the world’s first socialist state, but now, apparently not, I, and everyone else, know that “socialism” is always at the end of the rainbow.
@6
Given the evident limitations of Internet communication it’s rather hard to tell if one is being sarcastic. No?
This is another case of Sunny Hundal using misleading and inaccurate headlines.
The article is premised on a claim of “wide public support” for OccupyLSX, but the ST survey cited shows that a majority — 61% — either oppose or are undecided about the protest. 39% favouring it does not constitute “wide public support” and it’s misleading to suggest this.
The response would have been more positive if you had asked if people agree with the actual statement (below) as opposed to the narrow ‘Anti-capitalist’ one. Occupy actions are made up of diverse people and groups with differing personal and shared views on a host of things. I Occupy in London and do not associate with ant-capitalism (nor do many there) – we like the idea of anti-corrupt-capitalism 🙂
The true unity we share both in London and across the Occupy movements is this:
“We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice and oppression over equality, run our government. We have assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.”
——————————————————————————
Tina
(usually in a tent though having a few days off to get over a cold)
Reactions: Twitter, blogs
-
Despite media bias, #OccupyLSX maintains wide public support | @UKOccupy #OccupyUK
[…] from Liberal Conspiracy Despite attempts by the right-wing media to malign them, the #occupyLSX protesters in London maintain widespread support amongst voters. […]
-
Zara Lockwood
52% polled said ‘The protesters are right to want to call time on a system that puts profit before people’ #occupyLSX http://t.co/XqQeFCTV
-
Bethany Moore
52% polled said ‘The protesters are right to want to call time on a system that puts profit before people’ #occupyLSX http://t.co/XqQeFCTV
-
Xiane Sierocka-Stock
RT Despite media bias, #OccupyLSX maintains wide public support | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/ycou1b8G via @libcon
-
FromTheSham
52% polled said ‘The protesters are right to want to call time on a system that puts profit before people’ #occupyLSX http://t.co/XqQeFCTV
-
wkdpolitics
RT Despite media bias, #OccupyLSX maintains wide public support | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/ycou1b8G via @libcon
-
Ian Parker
RT Despite media bias, #OccupyLSX maintains wide public support | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/ycou1b8G via @libcon
-
Sharon Higgins
Despite media attempts to malign them, another poll shows #occupyLSX maintains wide public support http://t.co/Xtpbt5GJ
-
Iain Wood
Poll for S. Times today shows 39% of people support aims of #occupyLSX, only 26% opposed http://t.co/Xtpbt5GJ (from earlier)
-
rossana correa
RT Despite media bias, #OccupyLSX maintains wide public support | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/ycou1b8G via @libcon
-
A.N.Other Twit
RT Despite media bias, #OccupyLSX maintains wide public support | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/ycou1b8G via @libcon
-
Alex Braithwaite
Despite media bias, #occupyLSX maintains wide public support | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/xtlFfmN5 via @libcon
-
Oliver Conner
@adrian_hearn In answer to your question http://t.co/m6dMbx4U
-
Paris
Despite media bias, #occupyLSX maintains wide public support | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/8t1WJmAu via @libcon
-
Will Porter
Despite media attempts to malign them, another poll shows #occupyLSX maintains wide public support http://t.co/Xtpbt5GJ
-
vicky ayech
Despite media attempts to malign them, another poll shows #occupyLSX maintains wide public support http://t.co/Xtpbt5GJ
-
Salohcin E
OccupyLSX has very wide public support: http://t.co/zy6xY51S
-
Ceasefire Magazine
OccupyLSX has very wide public support: http://t.co/zy6xY51S
-
E Carter
OccupyLSX has very wide public support: http://t.co/zy6xY51S
-
DaimonQ
OccupyLSX has very wide public support: http://t.co/zy6xY51S
-
Jacqui Dickson
OccupyLSX has very wide public support: http://t.co/zy6xY51S
-
OCcUpY MELBOURNE
OccupyLSX has very wide public support: http://t.co/zy6xY51S
-
Hoxton Red
OccupyLSX has very wide public support: http://t.co/zy6xY51S
-
Keith Parkins
OccupyLSX has very wide public support: http://t.co/zy6xY51S
-
Robert Seabury
OccupyLSX has very wide public support: http://t.co/zy6xY51S
-
Sheffield Uncut
OccupyLSX has very wide public support: http://t.co/zy6xY51S
-
Conscious Thinker
OccupyLSX has very wide public support: http://t.co/zy6xY51S
-
ShiJiHao
OccupyLSX has very wide public support: http://t.co/zy6xY51S
-
Christina Freeman
OccupyLSX has very wide public support: http://t.co/zy6xY51S
-
Focus on #Occupy | Passing Nightmare
[…] major hostility from some sections of the media, almost every opinion poll demonstrates public support for the aims of the movement, even if some may disagree with the specific tactics […]
-
Peter Howells
Despite media bias, #occupyLSX maintains wide public support | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/T8mZdx7n via @libcon
-
Ed Miliband’s stance is the opposite of pragmatism……. «
[…] pattern of broad sympathy for the unions position. This follows hot-on-the-heels of polls showing public sympathy for the ‘Occupy’ […]
-
Ben
@davidtbreaker RE: polls http://t.co/49HS4pdc
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
