Monthly attitudes overview, May 2021 - British Future
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Monthly attitudes overview, May 2021 Sunder Katwala, Michelle Midzi and Jake Puddle, British Future Key themes this month: - Broad public appetite for a return to normality, with some reservations. - Economy and environment emerging as public issues of focus beyond the pandemic. - Most find “Culture Wars” exaggerated in the media and politics – but a real challenge too. Most people are now keen to return to normal (in most ways) Throughout 2020, the public were consistently been more cautious than the government on favouring lockdowns earlier. Despite the new Indian variant of the COVID virus, YouGov found that a plurality thinks that June 21st does remain the right time to lift lockdown restrictions. Only 8% think the government should have moved faster, while 44% think the timing remains right; though 33% felt this was too soon. (Fieldwork on May 14th 2021). A King’s Policy Institute segmentation found half the population (52%) have few concerns about returning to normal, with a third (34%) more reluctant, and one in six content with life under lockdown. 54% of the “keen” group are male. Women make up 56% and men 44% among the more “concerned” third of the public. When restrictions are lifted, most people will feel comfortable returning to many normal activities. 67% would stay the night with friends or family; one in five would not.
73% would feel comfortable taking holidays in the UK but only a third of people (34%) would feel the same about taking a holiday abroad. Some 40% report feeling uncomfortable at shaking hands to greet people. Only 35% are confident about attending major events. The news agenda was dominated by the Select Committee evidence of former Downing Street advisor Dominic Cummings. Four out of ten respondents said they were following this news fairly closely with 8% unaware of it. It is too soon to know what impact Cummings’ criticisms may have. Initial views were mixed, influenced by partisanship. A plurality (42%) said ‘Don’t Know’ in an immediate YouGov poll.
Ipsos MORI Issues Index shake-up Covid remains the public’s priority issue but its dominance of public attention has begun to fade. The monthly Ipsos-MORI issues index offers insights into which issues may have a higher profile. The latest monthly update, released on 17th May, reports on fieldwork from April 9th to 25th. Outside this top 10, immigration fell to 13th place, behind Crime (8%) in 11th and lack of faith in politicians (7%). Immigration is the top issue for 2% and is cited as important by 7% after a
dramatic and sustained reduction in public salience across the last six years. Climate change is in fifth place – but still below its pre-pandemic levels of salience, and so appears likely to rise further during 2021 ahead of November’s COP climate summit. The generational profile is fairly even - but climate advocates still need to work on broadening the cross-class appeal, with lower salience in the north and midlands.
The salience of climate change was much lower among ethnic minority respondents, at just
5%. Race (9th overall) was cited by 17% of ethnic minority respondents, in 5th place.
A year on from
Black Lives Matter anniversary
On the anniversary of the killing of George Floyd, there are different views about whether racism in
Britain has been given enough attention. 30% of the public thinks there has been too little discussion
of racism – while 28% of people think there is too much focus on the issue. 60% of Black
respondents said there was not yet enough discussion of race in Britain – while 3 out of 10 white
respondents think we now talk about racism too much.
This data aligns with the British Future findings in its Spring 2021 research on race attitudes, which reported similar splits across generations and ethnic groups. YouGov asked respondents which groups face most ethnic prejudice: Black African people, Gypsies/Roma/Travellers and Black Caribbean people are perceived as most likely to face prejudice. The YouGov poll was the latest to find a broad consensus on the contested issue of history. 78% of Britons agree that Britain’s colonial history should be taught in school, only 4% disagree. Most (54%) see different ethnicities and cultures being part of “British culture” now, while 27% think diversity undermines British culture. But 43% see an increasing tension between different ethnic groups living in England, compared to 30% who see harmonious relationships.
What do people understand by “culture wars”? The Kings Policy Institute is releasing a range of research to illuminate what the public understands by debates about “culture wars”, which have exploded in media prominence. A third of people have heard a lot about “being woke” while half of the public have heard little or nothing of this debate. “White privilege” is the exception in having broken through much more. “Cancel culture” and “identity politics” are unfamiliar to most people. When asked to identify what “culture war” debates might be about, issues of race, faith and integration come to mind more than issues of sexuality and gender – though 43% of respondents could not think of any relevant issues.
While three-quarters of respondents think the media exaggerate and amplify cultural divisions, few people think that cultural conflicts are simply a media and political invention.
Public attitudes sources and links: YouGov: The Indian Variant: how concerned are Brits about the latest strain of COVID-19? https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/05/14/indian-variant-how-concerned- are-brits-about-lates Ipsos Mori: post-pandemic behaviour https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/only-half-britons-would-be-comfortable-greeting-people- handshakes-and-hugs-same-way-they-did King’s Policy Institute: The Keen, the Concerned, the Content: the three groups anticipating the return of normal life post-COVID https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/the-keen-the-concerned-the-content-the-three-groups-anticipating- the-return-of-normal-life-post-covid Ipsos Mori: Issues Index April 2021 (published May 17th) https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/ipsos-mori-issues-index-april-2021 Ipsos Mori: British perceptions on racism and inequality: one year after George Floyd https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/british-perceptions-racism-and-inequality-one-year-after- george-floyd British Future: Race and opportunity in Britain: finding common ground https://www.britishfuture.org/publication/race-and-opportunity-in-britain-finding-common-ground/ YouGov: Is stereotypical image of ‘Red Wall’ residents actually accurate? https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/05/17/stereotypical-image-red-wall- residents-accurate Ipsos Mori: Public split on whether ‘woke’ is compliment or insult, and unsure what ‘culture wars’ means -despite huge surge in media coverage https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/public-split-whether-woke-compliment-or-insult-culture- wars-surge-media-coverage Kings College: Culture war divisions are exaggerated but real https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/uks-culture-war-divisions-exaggerated-but-real-say-public-as-shown- by-views-on-equal-rights-cultural-change-and-class-and-online-bubbles
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