New YouGov survey reports on the state of opinion in Britain

Will Jennings - Senior Lecturer at the University of Southampton

Gerry Stoker - Professor of Politics and Governance at the University of Southampton

There is a widespread feeling that politicians, and politics, has lost its way, that political leaders no longer look to stand up for the public in the face of powerful special interests. In the wake of further scandals over lobbying, presided over by a government dominated by Eton and Oxbridge-educated politicians, such feelings will surely only be reinforced.

There are also strong undercurrents of public opinion that question the competence and honesty of politicians, and their taste for finger-pointing. Some 52% of people do not believe that politicians ‘have the technical knowledge needed to solve the problems facing Britain today’, compared to just 20% who have faith in their competence. Such a prevailing view is highly problematic in a political context where voters are increasingly less likely to identify ideologically with parties and now are more likely to vote on the basis of evaluations of their competence in delivering on policies and managing public services.

To similar effect, there is a sense of a lack of courage on the part of politicians to ‘tell the public the truth about the tough decisions that need to be made’, with 40% of respondents rejecting the idea that the political class is able to show leadership (and just 33% believing it can). Further, there is substantial agreement that politicians have ‘exaggerated the scale of the economic crisis – by blaming either the previous or the current government’, with 47% agreeing with this statement and 28% disagreeing.

When we drill down into the attitudes of different sectors of society, the results are even more striking. There are significant differences in terms of party support and age – but not necessarily in ways that would be expected.

While disengagement with politics is often painted as a problem of younger citizens, we find that older respondents are the most negative of all about politicians. Across almost every measure, older citizens hold more negative attitudes about the capabilities and intentions of politicians. Yet belief that government can make a difference is stronger among these groups. Disappointment is, perhaps, the inevitable product of the belief that politics and government can make a difference but is failing to do so.

There are party differences too. Of all the parties, UKIP supporters are most negative about politics and government across the board. A plurality of UKIP supporters (44% to 39%) agree that ‘politics is a waste of time’ – in contrast to supporters of all the other main parties, a majority of whom disagree with this statement. UKIP supporters even more predominantly believe that politics is dominated by ‘self-seeking politicians protecting the interests of the already rich and powerful in our society’, by a remarkable margin of 85% in agreement compared to 3% disagreeing (in contrast, 53% of Conservative supporters agree with this statement and 20% disagree).

When asked to weigh up how our politics is managing austerity and economic downturn, it’s not fatalism about the capacity of government or politics that comes to the fore for most citizens. What emerges is a sense of being failed by a political class that lacks the competence and strength of character to follow the right policy options and, above all, is too short-term, too media-obsessed and too much in cahoots with the rich and powerful to provide leadership in the public interest. Britain may be weighed down by a substantial fiscal deficit, but as far as the public is concerned it is also suffering from a depressing shortfall in the quality of its political class.

[i]  Sample Size: 1905 GB Adults, Fieldwork 5-6th June, 2013. The survey was funded by the University of Southampton’s Centre for Citizenship, Globalisation and Governance.

Dr Will Jennings is Senior Lecturer at the University of Southampton. He is also Co-Director of the UK Policy Agendas Project, a Research Associate at the Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Vice-Convenor of the Executive Politics and Governance Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association. Olympic Risks, a book about governance of the Olympic Games and the Olympic movement, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in the summer of 2012.

Gerry Stoker is Professor of Politics and Governance at the University of Southampton. He was the founding chair of the New Local Government Network that was the think-tank of the year in 2004 and his most recent book Why Politics Matters won the 2006 political book of the year award from the Political Studies Association. He has provided advice to various parts of UK government and is also an expert advisor to the Council of Europe on local government and participation issues. In 2004, he won the Political Studies Association Award for ‘making a difference’ in recognition of the impact of his work on governance issues.