Britain at political crossroads

[DavidDvorkin]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-12/spu-bap121310.php

I wonder if the rightward movement this report reveals has happened throughout the West. It would explain the electoral changes we've been seeing.

Rather depressing, overall.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Working link:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-12/spu-bap121310.php

The National Centre for Social Research today released its latest British Social Attitudes report, its landmark study of the public's attitudes and values, published annually for almost thirty years.

This year's report delivers the public's verdict after thirteen years of Labour rule. It shows a nation at a political crossroads. On the one hand attitudes on welfare have hardened to the right. On the other, many think there were marked improvements in health and education under Labour, creating potential resistance to reform or cuts in these areas.

The public remains concerned about the gap between rich and poor. Yet concern about inequality isn't matched by support for welfare and redistribution. In fact, attitudes to welfare are even tougher than when Margaret Thatcher left office twenty years ago. Attempts to reform the benefit system chime with the public mood.

* The public is now less sympathetic towards benefit claimants than at the end of the Thatcher era. In 1991, well over half (58%) thought the government should spend more money on benefits: this has halved to only a quarter (27%) by 2009.
* The public also has concerns about redistributing income from the better off to the less well off; only one third (36%) think the state should do this, down from a half (51%) in 1989.
* This is despite the fact that 78% think the gap between those with high and a low income is too large, up from 73% in 2004. More than half (54%) now support an increase in the minimum wage.
* People think the chief executive of a large national company should earn only six times more than an unskilled factory worker. This is far less than the 20:1 ratio suggested by the Hutton report.

Some articles on it:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/dec/13/social-attitudes-survey-british-data
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/dec/13/social-survey-thatcherite-britain
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sympathy-for-those-on-benefits-is-lowest-since-thatchers-time-2158674.html