End Of Year Review 2007
The Ipsos 2007 Review, covers some of the key findings from our research for a wide range of government departments and businesses.
It has been a roller coaster year for both Government and Opposition; Gordon Brown's much awaited take-over of the reins looked magisterial and then bumbling in turn, and with David Cameron and the Conservatives starting to bring out policy proposals, there is the beginning of real competition in the political sphere.
It was the year when public concern about crime reached its highest ever level. In one way one has to feel sorry for the Government: they have lengthened sentences, put more police on the streets, and we spend more on crime than any OECD country -- and yet with signal crimes like gun and knife crime, and the perception gap between local and national situation, the public remained utterly unconvinced of statistics showing crime is falling.
As well as crime, we also got flooded -- it was the year climate change went mainstream, with the public convinced it was happening but ultimately wanting "government" to act, with relatively few feeling they personally could make a difference.
Despite collective gloom and doom, our work in 2007 reminds us that the British remain broadly "happy" and satisfied with their quality of life and as patriotic and as committed to ideas like "fairness", "tolerance", "respect for the law" as ever. While politicians grope for "Britishness", on many measures the British still remain personally optimistic.
All the best for 2008.
Ben Page: Chairman, Ipsos Social Research Institute
- Watch Ben Page & Ben Schott delivering their presentations at the Ipsos End Of Year Review 2007
