Britain becomes a nation of conservatives for the first time in 20 years

After 12 years of Labour Party rule, is anyone surprised?

People's views are becoming more conservative and there has been a mass move away from tax-and-spend values, an influential annual study said yesterday. Even Labour supporters have weakened in their belief in equality and redistribution of wealth, said the British Social Attitudes report. It said that after a dozen years of New Labour, 'British public opinion now has a more conservative character'.

For the first time in 20 years, more people called themselves Conservative than Labour, 32 per cent against 27 per cent. The large-scale survey, carried out every year since 1983, points to a hardening of views on many issues. People are less willing to consider legalising cannabis than they were just a few years ago and more than half think a single mother with a school-age child has a duty to go out to work to support the household. But there has also been a liberal swing on family life, with increasing numbers tolerating homosexuality and fewer condemning cohabiting couples.

The survey also found a declining sense of civic duty, with only 56 per cent believing everyone should vote in an election, down from 68 per cent in 1991.

The report says the shift of thinking against high public spending and the use of the tax system to redistribute wealth is the first resurgence of conservative values since Margaret Thatcher's premiership was nearing its end in 1989.

The survey, taken among nearly 5,000 people by the social research group NatCen, found that only two out of five back higher taxation, down from nearly two-thirds in 1997. However, the public remains devoted to spending on health and education - only eight per cent think those areas of spending should be cut.

Only 38 per cent now back spending to move wealth from the well-off to the poor, down from 51 per cent in 1994. Just one in five think unemployment benefits are too low, down from half in 1994.

The shift has been especially pronounced among Labour supporters who have followed the Blairite rejection of Old Labour values. Their belief in redistribution of wealth has dropped from 68 to 49 per cent since the mid-1990s, while Tory views have hardly changed. John Curtice, one of the authors of the report, said: 'Labour's increased public spending on health and education was an astute recognition of the public mood in the late 1990s. But the public's thirst has now been satisfied.'

The survey was funded by Whitehall ministries and quangos including the Economic and Social Research Council.

SOURCE

Posted by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.). For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me here

6 comments:

  1. Unfortunately conservative values are not people's default position. They need to be dragged through the shit by leftists before they realise the left doesn't have their best interests at heart. They're like the alcoholic who has to hit rock bottom before deciding to cut back on the booze.

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  2. Exactly ar, and from my take on it, nothing much has really changed. See the following -

    "However, the public remains devoted to spending on health and education..."

    That's when the long slide to shit in Britain started, socialized medicine and no matter how fucked up it gets, they won't let go of it.

    Which explains why the 'conservatives' in Britain aren't really all that Conservative, they cannot afford to be. Same as here.

    Ultimately, it's just replacing one nanny-state sack of shit with another, perhaps it just doesn't stink as much.

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  3. Welcome to the nanny state cess pit that leftism will inevitably lead you on the path to societal destruction:

    "Nicole Mamo runs a recruitment agency that supplies the National Health Service with temporary staff.

    Last week, she attempted to post the advert with Jobcentre Plus seeking a £5.80 ($10.30) an hour domestic cleaner who "must be very reliable and hard-working".

    Yet when she couldn't see the ad on Jobcentre's website, she phoned the company and was told using the word "reliable" meant the company could be open to legal action for discriminating against unreliable workers."

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/search-for-reliable-workers-deemed-discriminatory/story-fn3dxity-1225824012329

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  4. Unbelievable, i don't even know what to say. I think i'll post that one.

    I remember last night we saw that the highest intake of migrants to Australia is from Britain. I guess we can see exactly why they're fleeing in their droves.

    I just hope and pray that when they get here they don't vote for the same bastards that drove them from their country. We have enough support of the vermin out here, we don't need any additional support.

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  5. Not sure if you saw this one, MK. I posted it in comments a couple of weeks ago but it might have got lost in the old comments thread...

    Apparently in the UK you can't wave a knife from inside your home at intruders peering through your window at night.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/10/myleene-klass-knife-intruders

    That's rampant leftism at work.

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  6. Thanks for that one too ar, i've included it in the post, the madness out of that place is simply astounding.

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