News Society Social trends Britain in 2010: More tolerant, more conservative

[Martinus]

Britain in 2010: More tolerant, more Conservative, but less likely to vote
Survey shows more liberal attitude to gay couples

For the first time in almost 20 years Britain has more Conservative supporters than Labour, despite becoming more liberal on homosexuality and cohabitation, the annual British social attitudes survey reveals today.

The study, by the National Centre for Social Research (NCSR), which surveys a representative sample of more than 4,000 people annually, found that 32% of people identified themselves as Conservative compared with 27% as Labour – the first time the Tories have had more support since 1991. The general picture painted by the survey appears fertile terrain for David Cameron's Conservatives, who have made much of their socially liberal attitudes.

The Tories' stance mirrors changes in Britons' outlooks. The survey showed 36% of people thought sexual relations between two adults of the same sex were "always or mostly" wrong, down from 62% in 1983. While older people may be less accepting than younger ones of homosexuality, the trends showed that all age groups had become more liberal in their outlook towards same-sex relationships.

However, the Tories seem vulnerable on marriage. When asked, 45% of respondents agreed it made "no difference to children whether their parents are married to each other or just living together", up from 38% in 1998. Older people did not hold strong views on wedlock. This was probably because an increasing number of children were being born to cohabiting couples and an increasing number of older people were becoming grandparents to these children, the researchers said.

Compared with other European countries, Britain remains tolerant and ­liberal, with little stigma attached to couples who divorce or remain childless. The only exception appeared to be women with a child under three: nearly 40% of people disapproved of such mothers working full-time. Public hostility was lower in France, Sweden, Spain and Portugal. Only in Germany and the Netherlands was opposition higher.

Alison Park, co-director of NCSR, said this was probably because "there is fantastic provision for women who have young children in the Netherlands. So people there may ask, why work? In Britain there has been a large amount of change and perhaps we are catching up with others."

She said the government had managed to change perceptions of lone parents working: half of those surveyed thought a lone mother with a child of school age had a "special duty" to go out to work, but for a lone mother with a child under school age, the proportion who thought she should stay at home had increased. "By creating a debate about lone parents and when you should work, the government has changed attitudes in Britain," Park said.

It has done the same with cannabis, where a debate about the danger of smoking marijuana has hardened attitudes. In 2001 nearly half of those surveyed thought the drug was not "as damaging as you think". Now that is 24%.

The survey contained a blow for traditional Labour values, showing an apparent lack of sympathy towards helping the poor. Support for redistribution from the better off to those who are less well-off has dropped, with 38% of people agreeing that the government should create a more equal society. That figure in 1994 was 51%. This shift to the right was most marked among leftwing voters. Since 1994 the belief that government should redistribute wealth has fallen among Labour supporters from 68% to 49%. John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathcylde, said New Labour had failed to make the case for equality and, as result, "today the public no longer believes so strongly in the importance of equality and redistribution by the government. New Labour has helped ensure that British public opinion has a more conservative character."

All political parties were served up a warning by the report that only 56% of people believed everyone had a "duty" to vote in general elections – down from 68% in 1991.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jan/26/survey-social-liberal-conservative-supporters

Kinda interesting - and predictable, in the long run in most Western societies, imo. This is more about mainstreamisation of gay people and similar "non-traditional" minorities than about the society moving to the left as a whole. The fact that gays are hidden and dispersed among "normals" was originally one of the stumbling blocks in terms of visibility and social impact, but once the ball got rolling and gays began coming out, it is much easier to remove "structural discrimination" against them than it was/is with, say, ethnic minorities (where you have class issues, poverty etc.). Same goes (I mean, same as with gays) for people living together without marriage or childless people - I guess you could say it's the case of the middle class adopting formerly aristocratic foibles as normal, while the poor are still kicked in the arse.

[The Brain]

lol "annual"