We are all children of Margaret Thatcher now – or so earlier reports of the latest British Social Attitudes survey proclaimed in loud headlines.
As with all such sociological snapshots – this latest is of views held in 2008-9 – there is a grain of truth in the headline.
But just as David Cameron’s Tories may claim validation from what was reported as a hardening of attitudes to the poor, a more careful examination of the data equally suggests a greater latent support for Labour’s social policy record than even the party was prepared to admit to itself in the general election campaign.
Support for the idea that the government should spend more on benefits declined from 58 per cent in 1991, in the immediate wake of Mrs Thatcher’s departure from office, to 50 per cent in 1996 to 27 per cent in 2009.
Just 36 per cent of people interviewed said they believe that the government should redistribute income from the better off to the less well off – down considerably, from 51 per cent in 1989.
But 78 per cent of those surveyed nevertheless believed the gap between those with high and a low income is too large – up by 5 per cent since 2004 and a dramatic increase since 1982.
Respondents also felt a chief executive of a large company should earn only six times more than an unskilled factory worker, while more than 50 per cent supported an increase in the minimum wage.
The survey, carried out every year since 1983, is the work of the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen). Almost 80,000 people have been interviewed since it began and the latest findings are based on the views of 3,421 interviewees.
NatCen suggests its own findings show public sentiment on social welfare, wealth taxes, and redistribution are arguably closer to the views espoused by Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister.
But, said NatCen, people interviewed also strongly suggested they valued and approved of Labour’s investment in core public services such as the National Health Service and education. Satisfaction with the NHS was at a 30-year high, according to the report. Probably unsurprisingly, especially in the wake of successive scandals, distrust in politicians and banks is at its highest ever recorded levels.
Forty per cent of respondents declared they “almost never” trust government to put the national interest first, compared with 11 per cent in 1987, while 19 per cent believed banks to be well run compared to 90 per cent in 1983.
