Voters believe that Britain is on the wrong course

Yesterday evening we began our look at Ipsos-MORI's review of the year with two charts that showed Gordon Brown suffering a Major-like decline in popularity and David Cameron defying the trajectories of his predecessors as Tory leaders.

The top two charts from Ipsos-MORI's review of the year point to the 'fundamentals' that are running against Labour:

1. People are becoming more pessimistic about their economic circumstances (although there have (briefly) been three other occasions when they have been more pessimistic during the Labour years); and
2. Compared to 1998 there has been a 50% increase in the proportion of people who believe that Britain is getting a worse place to live.

The Conservatives cannot afford to overdo the pessimism but there is a growing sense among the electorate that Britain is in trouble.

A third chart also points to the extent to which voters have lost faith in government.  Only 21% tend to believe that the Government will tell the truth.  Even fewer voters think they have influence on public services or government policies.

Our third and final look at Ipsos-MORI's end of year report will be published later this morning.

Comments

[Alan S]

Actually Tim pessimism on the economy has been fairly stable for four years.

The interesting numbers are on Britain being a worse place to live --- that's why so many people want to emigrate.

[Edison Smith]

In regards to the increased number of people believing Britain is a worse place to live, one wonders if a lot of this is down to the amount of 24-hour news coverage at one's fingertips, which have obviously boomed since 1998.

It's easier these days to hear bad news.

[Mike H]

"...there is a growing sense among the electorate that Britain is in trouble".

Politicians seem to be all too keen to deny this, but it is the number one issue under discussion by ordinary people up and down the country.

It really is time that our elected representatives started to listen to those they are supposed to represent, instead of adopting the all too common 'we know better' attitude.

They ignore this issue at their peril.

[Tony Makara]

The problem we face as a nation is that Britain isn't on any sort of course at all. We are literally drifting along under a burnt out government that is unable to produce any sort of vision. Drift is bad enough, but to be in a state of drift while facing a downturn in the economy is very worrying indeed. If the economic situation turns very bad we know that a Labour government which has floated along in the comfort zone for ten years will not have the assertive attitude needed to cope.

[Michael Davidson]

To be fair, your chart shows there has been persistent pessimism since the turn of the millennium and that hasn't stopped Labour winning elections before.