Queen's Speech poll 1991

Public Sector

Survey on public attitudes to the policies outlined in the 1991 Queen's Speech, conducted the day after it was delivered

 

MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,101 adults aged 18+ at 55 constituency sampling points across Great Britain. Interviews were conducted face-to-face, in street, on 1 November 1991. Data were weighted to match the profile of the population.

Q. Which political party do you think has the best team of leaders to deal with the country's problems? Q. And which political party do you think has the best policies for the country as a whole? Q. And which political party is most clear and united about what its policies should be?

  Best team of leaders Best policies Most clear and united
  % % %
Conservative 40 36 34
Labour 27 32 26
Liberal Democrat 8 10 12
Green Party 1 1 2
Other 1 1 2
None of these 14 9 13
Don't know 9 11 11

  Q.If the Conservative Party does win the next election, do you think they will or will not do each of the following?

  Net ("will" minus "will not")
  %
Make the rich richer and the poor poorer +45
Raise VAT +18
Privatise the NHS +12
Keep inflation down +5
Cut income tax to 20p in the pound -11
Improve Welfare State services -21
Reduce unemployment -45

Q. Here are some of the ways the Government could tackle this country's economic problems. Which of these do you think would be best for Britain?

  1981 1991
  % %
Cut taxes and cut government spending 45 24
Cut taxes and increase government spending 16 24
Leave things as they are now 15 13
Raise taxes and cut government spending 9 10
Raise taxes and raise government spending 7 19
Don't know 8 10

Q. Do you support or oppose the government adopting the following policies?

    Support Oppose No opinion
Introducing a new criminal offence of prison mutiny % 81 11 8
Introducing a new criminal offence of occupying someone else's property without their permission, or squatting % 81 15 4
Introducing stricter rules covering the admission of refugees into Britain % 78 15 7
Making councils put some of their services out to competitive tender % 57 33 10
Allowing private companies to compete with the Post Office letter service % 57 37 6
Publishing league tables of school exam results % 48 36 16
Allowing individual NHS hospitals to opt out of regional health authority management and to be self-governing within the NHS % 40 51 9
Selling British Rail to private shareholders % 31 59 10
Selling British Coal to private shareholders % 30 59 11

  Q.If France and Germany were to join with other countries in establishing a single European currency, do you think Britain should...?

  %
Join fully with the single European currency and replace the pound sterling 26
Retain the pound sterling and keep it alongsside the European currency 65
No opinion 9

Q. Thinking about BBC television coverage, do you think this is biased towards the Conservatives' point of view, Labour's point of view or some other party's point of view, or do you feel their coverage is unbiased?

  1988 1991
  % %
Biased to Conservative 19 18
Biased to Labour 7 12
Biased to some other party 1 1
Unbiased 58 56
Don't know 15 13

Q. And thinking about independent television coverage, that is ITV and Channel 4, do you think this is biased towards the Conservatives' point of view, or towards Labour's point of view, or some other party's point of view, or do you feel their coverage is unbiased?

  1988 1991
  % %
Biased to Conservative 7 8
Biased to Labour 7 9
Biased to some other party 1 1
Unbiased 67 66
Don't know 18 16

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