Political Attitudes in Great Britain for November 1998

Research study conducted for The Times Newspaper MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,883 adults aged 18+ at 154 sampling points across Great Britain between 20-23 November 1998.

26 November 1998

Research study conducted for The Times Newspaper MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,883 adults aged 18+ at 154 sampling points across Great Britain between 20-23 November 1998.

Q1 How would you vote if there were a General Election tomorrow? [If undecided or refused at Q1] Q2 Which party are you most inclined to support?
	%
Conservative	29
Labour	53
Liberal Democrats	13
Scottish/Welsh Nationalist	2
Green Party	1
Referendum Party	*
Other	1

Would not vote	10
Undecided	8
Refused	2

Q3 Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way the Government is running the country? Q4 Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way Mr Blair is doing his job as Prime Minister? Q5 Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way Mr Hague is doing his job as leader of the Conservative Party? Q6 Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way Mr Ashdown is doing his job as Leader of the Liberal Democrats?
	Satisfied	Dissatisfied	Don't know	Index
	%	%	%	177
Government	49	37	14	+12
Blair	61	29	10	+32
Hague	27	48	25	-21
Ashdown	52	21	27	+31

Q7 What would you say is the most important issue facing Britain today? Q8 What do you see as other important issues facing Britain today?
	Q7	Q7/8
	%	%
National Health Service/Hospitals	10	37
Unemployment/factory closure/lack of industry	18	35
Education/schools	8	32
Common Market/EU/Europe/Single European Currency	17	26
Economy/economic situation	11	21
Crime/law & order/violence/vandalism	6	17
Pensions/welfare security	2	11
Defence/foreign affairs	2	8
Poverty/inequality	2	7
Housing	1	7
Race relations/immigration/immigrants	2	6
Drug abuse	1	6
Inflation/prices	2	5
Pollution/environment	1	5
Taxation	1	5
Low pay/minimum wage/fair wages	1	4
Morality/individual behaviour	1	4
Transport/public transport	1	3
Beef/BSE/Mad Cow Disease	1	2
Nuclear weapons/nuclear war/disarmament	1	2
Pound/exchange rate/value of pound	1	2
Countryside/rural life	*	2
Local government/council tax	*	2
Animal welfare	*	1
Scottish/Welsh Assembly/Devolution Constitutional reform	*	1
Northern Ireland	*	1
Privatisation	*	1
AIDS	0	*
Trade unions/strikes	0	*

Other	2	6
Don't know	8	7

Q9 Do you think that the general economic condition of the country will improve, stay the same, or get worse over the next 12 months?
	%
Improve	16
Stay the same	31
Get worse	47
Don't know	6
MORI Economic Optimism Index (EOI)	-31%

Q10 Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way Gordon Brown is doing his job as Chancellor of the Exchequer?
	%
Satisfied	45
Dissatisfied	29
Don't know / no opinion	26
Net satisfied	+16%

Q11 On balance, do you agree or disagree with the statement that "in the long term, this Government's policies will improve the state of Britain's economy"?
	%
Agree	46
Disagree	33
Don't know / no opinion	21
Net agree	+13%

Q12 Since it was elected in May 1997, do you think the Government has done a good job or a bad job at ...
	Good job	Bad job	Don't know	Net good job
	%	%	%	(177)
Managing the economy	50	29	21	+21
Handling taxation and public expenditure	44	36	20	+8
Keeping unemployment down	43	36	21	+7

Technical details

MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,883 adults aged 18+ at 154 sampling points across Great Britain. Fieldwork was conducted face-to-face on 20-23 November 1998. Base: All respondents, unless stated. The voting intention figures exclude those who say they would not vote (10%), are undecided (8%) or refuse to name a party (2%). All figures are in percentages. Where percentages do not sum to 100, this may be due to multiple responses, the exclusion of don't knows or computer rounding. Data were weighted to match the profile of the population. An asterisk (*) denotes a figure between zero and 0.5%.

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