State of Britain Survey 2003

France is considered Britain's least reliable ally by more than half of British people, according to the 'State of Britain Survey 2003' -- published today by the MORI Social Research Institute on behalf of the Financial Times.

The research, carried out at the tail-end of the conflict in Iraq, shows three quarters of Britons (73%) consider America to be Britain's most reliable ally -- with Australia getting the second highest poll position with one in 20 (four per cent) naming it. European countries do not fair so well, with France, Germany and Ireland considered Britain's most reliable ally by just one per cent each.

When asked to name Britain's least reliable ally, France is named by 55%, with America named by one in 17 (six per cent) and Germany and Russia each named by three per cent.

However, when asked to chose which was most important to Britain -- Europe, the Commonwealth or America -- two in five (42%) name Europe compared with a third (34%) who name America. The USA is becoming more important, though -- last year, half of British people (50%) named Europe and 29% named America.

Topline Results

• Results based on 2,075 British adults aged 16+
• Interviews were conducted face-to-face, in home, between 10-15 April 2003
• Results are based on all respondents unless otherwise stated
• Data are weighted to the profile of the population
• An '*' indicates a finding of less than 0.5%, but greater than zero
• Where percentages do not add up to exactly 100% this may be due to computer rounding, the exclusion of "don't knows" or to multiple answers
• Poll carried out by MORI on behalf of The Financial Times

Q1 The things people can buy and do -- their housing, furniture, food, cars, recreation and travel -- make up their standard of living. How satisfied or dissatisfied do you feel about your standard of living at present?

	1988	1989	2003
	%	%	%
Very satisfied	16	18	23
Fairly satisfied	58	57	55
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied	8*	8	9
Fairly dissatisfied	10	11	9
Very dissatisfied	8	6	3
Don't know	-	*	1

* includes don't knows

Q2 Do you think that your children are likely to retire at an older or younger age than you, or will there be no difference?

	%
Older	30
Younger	24
No difference	21
Don't know	9
Not applicable	16

Q3 When they reach your age, do you think your children will have a higher or lower quality of life than you, or about the same?

	%
Higher	43
Lower	12
About the same	24
Don't know	5
Not applicable	16

Q4 Looking at this card, how would you describe the current state of the British economy? Q5 And what state do you think the British economy will be in, in 5 years' time?

	Q4		Q5
	Nov 2000	2003
	%	%	%
Very good	8	4	5
Fairly good	64	59	49
Fairly poor	19	26	22
Very poor	4	6	8
Don't know	5	5	16

Q6 How likely or unlikely do you think it is that there will be a major terrorist attack on Britain within the next six months?

	%
Very likely	11
Fairly likely	32
Neither likely nor unlikely	11
Fairly unlikely	29
Very unlikely	12
Don't know	5

Q7 On balance, do you feel that Tony Blair's foreign policy has increased or decreased the risk of major terrorist attacks in Britain, or has it made no difference?

	%
Greatly increased	18
Slightly increased	42
Made no difference	27
Slightly decreased	7
Greatly decreased	1
Don't know	4

Q8 Which two or three of these, if any, would you say you most identify with? Please read out all that apply.

	1999				2003
	GB	Eng	Scot*	Wales	GB	Eng	Scot	Wales
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Base:	(923)	(789)	(94)	(40)+	(2,075)	(1,781)	(210)	(84)+
This local community	41	42	39	32	44	44	42	48
This region	50	49	62	50	39	39	34	50
England/ Scotland/Wales	45	41	72	81	46	42	79	59
Britain	40	43	18	27	45	47	27	45
Europe	16	17	11	16	17	18	9	10
The Commonwealth	9	10	5	3	7	7	5	13
The global community	8	9	5	2	9	10	5	4
None of these	*	*	0	0	1	1	0	0
Don't know	2	2	1	0	1	1	1	3

+ NB Small base size

Q9 Do you agree or disagree with the statement, "I would rather be a citizen of my country than of any other in the world"

	1998 +	2003
	%	%
Strongly agree	Agree 71	51
Tend to agree		26
Neither agree nor disagree		8
Tend to disagree		11
Strongly disagree		3
Don't know		1

+ Chicago University, quoted in The Guardian 30/6/1998. Only figure for 'agree' available

Q10 Which of these statements best describes your opinion on the present system of governing Britain?

	Crowther Hunt
	1973	1991	1995	1997	1998	2003
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Works extremely well and could not be improved	5	4	3	2	4	3
Could be improved in small ways but mainly works well	43	29	19	26	37	42
Could be improved quite a lot	35	40	40	40	39	38
Needs a great deal of improvement	14	23	35	29	15	13
Don't know	4	5	3	3	5	3

Q11-12 To what extent are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way ... works?

	Your local Council	The United Nations
Base: All answering each section		(1,377)	(698)
	2000	2003	2003
	%	%	%
Very satisfied	4	6	4
Fairly satisfied	44	41	29
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied	13	16	16
Fairly dissatisfied	20	20	29
Very dissatisfied	13	15	16
Don't know	5	4	7

Q13 To what extent are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way .... works?

	Scottish Parliament	Welsh Assembly	London Assembly
Base: All in Scotland / Wales / London	(210)	(74)+	(236)
	%	%	%
Very satisfied	2	9	3
Fairly satisfied	21	10	27
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied	19	26	24
Fairly dissatisfied	24	12	10
Very dissatisfied	26	23	8
Don't know	9	19	27

+ Small base size

Q14 Which of these -- Europe, the Commonwealth or America -- is the most important to Britain?

	1969+	1984	1986	1989	1991	1993	1996	2002	2003
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Europe	21	39	39	50	52	57	45	50	42
Commonwealth	34	25	26	21	22	18	22	19	16
America	34	26	29	19	19	15	22	29	34
Don't know	n/a	n/a	n/a	10	7	10	11	2	8

+ Gallup Poll

Q15 Which country do you think is Britain's most reliable ally? Q16 And which country do you think is Britain's least reliable ally?

	Q15	Q16
	%	%
Australia	4	*
Austria	0	*
Belgium	*	*
Canada	1	0
China	0	2
Denmark	*	0
Finland	*	*
France	1	55
Germany	1	3
Greece	0	*
Netherlands / Holland	*	0
Ireland	1	1
Italy	*	*
Luxembourg	0	0
New Zealand	*	*
Portugal	*	*
Russia	*	3
Spain	*	*
Sweden	*	0
United States of America (USA)	73	6
Other	1	8
None	4	2
Don't know	14	20

Q17-19 I am going to read out a number of statements about Britain's role in the world, and I would like you to tell me whether you agree or disagree with each.

	Strongly agree	Tend to agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Tend to disagree	Strongly disagree	Don't know
	%	%	%	%	%	%
"Britain just does what the US tells it to do"	14	29	11	31	14	2
"Britain is a force for good in the world"	22	53	13	8	1	3
"Britain should stop pretending it is an important power in the world"	9	26	15	34	13	3

Q20 Which of the following best describes your own view of British participation in the single currency?

	Nov 2002	Apr 2003
	%	%
I strongly support British participation	16	15
I am generally in favour of British participation, but could be persuaded against it if I thought it would be bad for the British economy	23	22
I am generally opposed to British participation, but could be persuaded in favour of it if I thought it would be good for the British economy	22	23
I strongly oppose British participation	32	33
None of these	-	1
Don't know	7	5