The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) has today
released its 34th annual British Social
Attitudes report.
The story told by NatCen's
report is of a country expecting more from the state.
There are clear signs of increased support for a government that
is more generous with its spending and a growing public
willingness to pay for it. Meanwhile many people in Britain are
prepared to sacrifice civil liberties in favour of protecting
national security. This combination of more support for a
traditional left-wing view on the economy, and a traditionally
conservative position on law and order seems to signal a role for
a more active state.
Yet, alongside this we identify a growing acceptance of
difference in our personal lives, even among those who have
tended to be more conservative, and a desire for the state to
allow people to make up their own minds on issues like abortion
and euthanasia.
In the background, behind these bigger societal trends, lie
Brexit and immigration where the vote to leave the EU appears to
have sharpened our Euroscepticism.
A more generous state
NatCen’s British Social
Attitudes survey of 2,942 people uncovers evidence of a
shift to the left on the economy since the financial crisis and
the austerity that followed. We are more likely to expect
government to create jobs and redistribute wealth and many of us
are happy to pay more tax. We are also less likely to hold
negative views towards people in receipt of benefits.
- Tax more, spend more: More people (48%) say they want higher
taxes to pay for more spending on health, education and social
benefits, the highest level for more than a decade. 44% say they
want it to stay the same and 4% would like to see taxes cut.
Despite the recent swing we have still not reached the heights of
the 1990s when six in ten favoured more spending.
- Redistribution: More people (42%) say that government should
redistribute income from the better-off to those who are less
well-off than disagree (28%). Before the financial crisis
fewer people supported redistribution than opposed it (34% and
38% respectively in 2006). Although, support for more
redistribution is still lower than the peak it reached during the
late 1980s and early 1990s.
- Job creation and red-tape: Eight in ten (83%) support
government financing projects to create new jobs, up from seven
in ten (72%) in 2006. While the proportion who want government to
cut regulation of business is now only a third (34%), down from
40% in 2006.
- Spending priorities: Eight in ten think government should
spend more or much more on health (83%), seven in ten on
education (71%), six in ten on the police (57%). By contrast only
16% would support more spending on benefits for the unemployed.
Less cynical about benefit claimants: After more than two decades
of relatively tough attitudes, there are signs that views towards
benefit recipients may be softening, though the public doesn’t
view all those in receipt of support from the state equally.
- Benefit fraud: The proportion who say most dole claimants are
‘fiddling’ has dropped from 35% in 2014 to 22% in 2016 – its
lowest level since the question was first asked on the survey in
1986.
- Deserving help: The proportion who say that most social
security claimants don’t deserve help dropped from 32% in 2014 to
21% in 2016, the lowest ever level on the survey.
- Less cynical, but still cynical: On average the public
estimate that 34 out of every 100 people receiving benefits have
given false information to support their claim.
But all people are not equal: Support for spending on pensions is
down, it’s up on benefits for the disabled, and the public is
less damning of tax fraud than benefit fraud.
- Priorities for benefits spending: For the first time in more
than 30 years, pensions are not the public’s top priority for
extra spending on benefits. The proportion identifying retirement
pensions as being among their top two priorities for extra
welfare spending has fallen from 72% in 2010 to 60% and was
overtaken by support for more spending on benefits for people who
are disabled for the first time. 67% now prioritise spending on
benefits for disabled people, up from 53% in 2010. Support for
spending on unemployment benefits is slightly higher than it was
prior to the financial crisis, but as few as 13% include it among
their top two priorities, a much lower level than during the
1980s and 1990s.
- “Tax dodgers” vs “benefits scroungers”: 61% of people think
it is wrong for benefit claimants to use legal loopholes to
increase their payments, compared with 48% who think it is wrong
to use legal loopholes to pay less tax. The view that it is
acceptable to use legal loopholes to pay less tax is most
strongly felt among people who are better off.
Protecting national security
The survey finds Britain holding traditionally “conservative”
views on national security and law and order. Even before the
terrorist attacks in Manchester and London the public favoured
stronger state powers to tackle terrorism even at the expense of
individual rights.
- Detention without trial: At a time of a suspected terrorist
attack, more than half the population (53%) would support
detaining people indefinitely without putting them on trial. The
law currently restricts this to 14 days.
- Stop and search: Seven in ten (70%) believe authorities
should have the right to stop and search people at random if a
terrorist attack is suspected. Currently a police officer can
only stop and search without “reasonable grounds" if a senior
police officer has authorised it in advance.
- Big brother: 80% think the government should have the right
to keep people under video surveillance in public areas, while
50% think they should have the right to monitor emails and other
information exchanged on the Internet.
- Obey the law: The proportion who say that it is acceptable
not to obey a law, even if that particular law is wrong, has
declined from a high point of 37% in 1991 to only 24%.
- Defence spending: Four in ten (39%) back more defence
spending, more people than at any time during the past 30 years.
Only two in ten (20%) want to see it cut.
Roger Harding, Head of Public Attitudes, National Centre
for Social Research:
“People’s tolerance for austerity is drying up, even if that
means higher taxes. This leftwards tilt on tax and spend is
matched by a long-running conservatism on national security and
law and order. In all, people want a more active state that’s
firm but fairer.”
More freedom in our personal lives
While the public is content with a more active government in the
public sphere, NatCen finds an increasingly liberal attitude
towards our personal lives. Those opposed to same-sex
relationships and sex before marriage are part of an ever
shrinking minority and most also support the right of people to
choose to have an abortion or end their own life.
Free to love: Britain’s sexual liberalisation continues
unfettered with views on everything from sex before marriage to
same-sex relationships and adult films becoming more liberal than
ever before. Most striking has been the shift in the views of
Britain’s Christian population and the closing of the gap in
views between younger and older people.
- Sex before marriage: Three quarters (75%) now say sex before
marriage is “not wrong at all”. This stood at under two thirds
(64%) in 2012. 73% of Anglicans agree that sex before marriage is
not at all wrong, up from 54% only four years earlier and around
double the proportion who said this in 1985. In 2005 the gap
between the youngest and the oldest people on whether sex before
marriage is “not wrong at all” was 53 percentage points, it has
now halved to 25 points.
- Same-sex relationships: Attitudes towards same-sex
relationships have become significantly more liberal with 64% of
people now saying that they are “not wrong at all”, up from 59%
in 2015, and 47% in 2012. Over half (55%) of Anglicans say
same-sex relationships are “not wrong at all”, up from 31% only
four years previously.
- Adult films: 45% of people believe adults should be able to
watch whatever films they like, however violent or pornographic,
up from 32% of people in 1996. There remains, however a big
gender and age divide on this issue, with six in ten (58%) of men
and young people (60%) saying adults should be able to watch any
film they choose, compared with three in ten women (32%) and two
in ten (20%) over 75.
A right to choose: When it comes to both abortion and euthanasia,
the public is inclined to allow individuals to do as they choose.
- Abortion: More people than ever say an abortion should be
allowed if a woman decides on her own she does not want the child
(70%) or if a couple cannot afford any more children (65%). Most
remarkably perhaps the proportion of Catholics who agree an
abortion should be allowed if a women does not want the child
jumped from 33% in 1985 to 61% in 2016.
- Euthanasia: 77% of people feel a person with a painful
incurable disease should be able to legally request that a doctor
end their life. Around eight in ten have backed euthanasia under
these circumstances throughout the past 30 years.
Roger Harding, Head of Public Attitudes, National Centre
for Social Research:
“The rise of social liberalism continues seemingly undented by
Brexit, Trump and Le Pen. In fact, if anything, the trend that
has seen Britain happier than ever to accept greater diversity in
relationships has accelerated in recent years. Unlike on Brexit
and the election, this is an area where the generations are
increasingly united.”
Brexit and immigration
- More Eurosceptic than ever: In the immediate aftermath of the
Referendum the public has become more sceptical about the EU than
ever before. Three in four (75%) feel that Britain should either
leave the EU or that if it stays the EU’s powers should be
reduced, up from 65% in 2015. Only one in five favoured the
status quo or EU expansion.
- A widening social divide: Views on immigration have become
more polarised. The young and highly educated are more likely
than ever to believe that immigration is good for the economy,
while older people and non-graduates are more likely to say
immigration is bad for the economy.
- Choosier about immigrants: Two thirds of people (65%)
believe all migrants to the UK should speak English, have good
educational qualifications and work skills needed in Britain,
compared with half of people (49%) in 2002.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
- The National Centre for Social Research, Britain’s largest
independent social research organisation, aims to promote a
better-informed society through high quality social research
(www.natcen.ac.uk).
- British Social Attitudes: the
34th Report is published on 28 June 2017
and is freely available at: http://www.bsa.natcen.ac.uk
- The editors are Elizabeth Clery, John Curtice and Roger
Harding.
- History –The British Social Attitudes survey has been
conducted annually since 1983. Since then around 100,000 people
have taken part in the survey.
- Sample and approach –The 2016 British Social Attitudes
survey consisted of 2,942 interviews with a representative,
random sample of adults in Britain with a response rate of 46%.
Interviewing was carried out between 13 July and 30 November
2016. Addresses are randomly selected and visited by one of
NatCen Social Research’s interviewers. After selecting one adult
at the address (again at random), the interviewer carries out an
hour long interview.
- Topics – the topics covered by the survey change from
year to year, depending on the identities and interests of its
funders. Some questions are asked every year, others every couple
of years, and others less frequently.
- Funding –The survey is funded by a range of charitable
and government sources, which change from year to year. Questions
in the 2016 survey were funded by the following: the Department
for Work and Pensions, The Government Equalities Office, the
Department for Transport, the Department for Education, the
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, The
King’s Fund, The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The National Housing
Federation, The Trade Union Congress, the UK Statistics Authority
and the Economic and the Social Research Council (ESRC).
- The views expressed in this report are those of the
report authors and editors alone.
The 34th Report includes the
following chapters:
