It seems that Google are well aware of the issue with Google Search results not rendering properly in IE. It's apparently caused by Instant Search, and a workaround (other than putting Google into compatibility mode or turning the feature off) is to click on this link that will force Google Search (and only Search) to use the old version:
https://www.google.com/webhp?noj=1.
You do have to wonder why no one caught this when it appears to be pretty trivial to replicate, and why it's so hard to fix after so many days.