Britain has grown more conservative under Labour

Britain has become a more conservative country in the past two decades, both politically and socially, an official study of public attitudes shows.

For the first time in 20 years more members of the public consider themselves Tory voters than Labour, according to the NatCen British Social Attitudes survey, which has been conducted annually since 1983.

The study concludes that Britons have become more conservative in their views towards welfare and benefits since Labour was elected in 1997, with a majority believing that the poor should do more to look after themselves.

The public has concluded "enough is enough" for increased taxation and raised spending on key services such as health and education, with support at its lowest for almost three decades.

It comes as the battle to fix Britain's economy by reducing the public defecit becomes the central theme of the election. Mr Brown will hope that growth figures to be released today, which are expected to show Britain has finally emerged from the recession, can form the basis of an unlikely comeback in the polls.

However, last night a poll for Channel 4 News showed most people, 72 per cent, say their vote will not be affected by the new figures and just 20 per cent will attribute the recovery to the Government.
Gordon Brown yesterday attempted to portray himself as someone who was prepared to cut public services to pay off the deficit despite taunts from David Cameron that he was guilty of “moral cowardice”
The Prime Minister has been accused of failing to accept before the election that he needs to explain how widespread Labours cuts will be.

But he said that he would not be afraid to make cuts, although he warned that Tory plans to cut the deficit more quickly would jeopardise the recovery.

Despite the anticipated return to growth, workers are reporting plummeting job satisfaction, believing they are being made to work harder, have fewer chances of promotion and are becoming more stressed. The research for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development also showed that fewer than one in 10 people believe their standard of living has improved in recent months.

The social attitude report’s authors attribute New Labour’s policies for the shift to the right because the party's repositioning under Tony Blair towards the centre has pushed the public to become more conservative.

The wide-ranging report, which is funded by several Government departments is based on figures for 2008, the most recently available, but will still come as a boost for David Cameron, the Tory leader, in the run up to the next General Election.

It underlines the sharp swing in British opinion over the past few years. In 2007, one in four people supported the Conservatives compared with 34 per cent in support of Labour. In the survey, the Tories now have 32 per cent support, compared with 27 per cent for Labour.

But the shift in mood goes beyond voting preferences as attitudes have also hardened towards attempts to cut inequality and spread wealth more fairly.

Only two in five people support increased taxes to fund higher spending on health and education, down from 62 per cent in 1997, while half say taxes and spending should remain the same as they are now, the highest level since 1984.

A minority of one in five (21 per cent) think unemployment benefits are too low and cause hardship, compared with over 53 per cent in 1994.

And there is growing support for lone parents to have a duty to find work attached to benefits entitlement if their children are of school age.

However, there is increased social acceptance of homosexuality, cohabitation and “non-traditional” family structures.

Report co-author John Curtice, a politics professor at Strathclyde University, said the shift to the right is mainly a result of the changing mindset of Labour supporters.

Support for wealth distribution among such voters has dropped from two thirds to less than half since 1994 while it has remained broadly static among Tory voters.

Prof Curtice said: "In repositioning itself ideologically New Labour helped ensure that the ideological terrain of British public opinion acquired a more conservative character.

"Winning elections may not necessarily be any easier for the Conservative Party as a result – but, if and when they do secure power, they will find themselves governing a country that is more at ease with markets and economic freedom than it ever was when Margaret Thatcher was in power.

"The wind of change blown by New Labour has proven to be powerful indeed."

He said the increased spending on health and education was an astute move by Labour at the time but "now that spending has been increased, the public's thirst has been satisfied".

He described "an electorate that is now much further away from traditional Labour attitudes than was the case little more than a decade ago", adding that the "more conservative tune of restraint in spending on public services and keeping a lid on the tax burden would now seem to provide a closer fit to the climate of opinion."

The British Social Attitudes report also revealed the number of people voting out of a feeling of civic duty has plummeted in the last 20 years.

Traditionally, large numbers of voters went to the ballot box because they felt it was their duty to do so.

But the survey revealed that just over half of those quizzed (56 per cent) now believe everyone has a duty to vote in general elections.

This figure is down from 68 per cent in 1991.

Political disengagement is most marked in those aged under 35.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7072710/Britain-has-grown-more-conservative-under-Labour.html

particularly applied to "old labour". They did so up to the first time they got "new labour" in. Thereafter, or so it would appear , they soon realised they were being treated like a pack of ****'s by Mr T. BLiar and apparently just stopped voting : they didn't vote instead.

So much for "The wind of change blown by New Labour" - SBD fart more like it.

If you're not going to challenge the conventional wisdom of your opponents, why bother?