Q If the Tories were to win the next General Election, do you think the overall level of taxation would be ...?
Q If the Tories were to win the next General Election, do you think that public services would ...?
According to political folklore, the results of general elections are dependent on the weather. If polling day is cold, wet and grey — a dreich day as us Scots would say — it was long assumed that the Conservatives would benefit. Their supporters, the argument went, were more likely than Labour's supporters to brave the weather. A forecast of warmth and sunshine, in contrast, was seen as a positive omen for Labour's fortunes.
A number of events, commemorations and television programmes have recently marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Argentine invasion of the Falklands islands. Received wisdom seems to have it that the "Falklands Factor" was the political making of Margaret Thatcher, but data from the Ipsos Public Affairs Archive says something quite different.
Public private partnerships are an increasingly significant part of the UK economy (HM Treasury reports ?46Bn already spent with ?26Bn more to be invested by 2010) but historically the management of these projects has been beset by stories of conflict and overrun. In December 2006, Ipsos carried out a survey on behalf of Socia to question Directors of organisations who are involved in these partnerships to find the lessons that must be learned from their experience.
Since the beginning of 2006, patients have been entitled to a choice of four or more hospitals when referred by their GP. The Department of Health commissioned Ipsos to undertake a regular postal survey assessing the implementation of this policy.
Pulse Check
Pulse Check delivers key insights from Ipsos' Political Monitor, Political Pulse, and Public Services data, along with reactive polling, to help you navigate the evolving political landscape.
Ipsos's March voting intention findings, carried out face-to-face between 9-15 March amongst 1,983 British adults aged 18+, show the Conservative Party eight points ahead of Labour amongst those who say they are absolutely certain to vote.
UK small businesses have been left in two minds on the implications of the Chancellor's swan song Budget. Less than a third (30%) think it will be good or fairly good for business, while 16 per cent feel that it would be fairly bad.
The Scottish Executive commissioned Ipsos, in collaboration with Mott MacDonald, to conduct qualitative research to explore views about the quality of the water environment. and inform policy decisions in relation to the implementation of the Water Framework Directive and associated legislation. The research consisted of seven focus groups with members of the general public conducted between 5 October and 24 October 2006 and ten in-depth, one-to-one interviews with stakeholders conducted between 7 November and 14 November 2006. Key themes included: the meanings people attach to the water environment, the values attached to its different attributes, priorities for service provision, and how people should be consulted in the implementation process.
Ipsos's latest findings from our quarterly Delivery Index tracker survey show that public confidence in the future of the NHS remains at a very low level, although confidence in the future of education remains higher.
In recent months there have been some high-profile controversies involving the relationship between public sector workers and the Labour Government. The most recent of these involved below-inflation pay rises for public sector workers, as well as opposition to the Government's public sector reforms — particularly with the NHS.
