New social attitude statistics show that since Prime Minister Gordon Brown took charge at No 10, Britain has turned to the Tories.
Mr Brown took over from Tony Blair in June, 2007, when independent social attitude survey figures showed support for the Conservatives running at around 25% with 34% supporting Labour. Within a year, 32% were backing the Tories and Labour support had dipped to 27%.
The bad news for Tory leader David Cameron is that he is making it a priority to support marriage with tax breaks to shore up the family just as Britain is becoming socially more liberal, with cohabitation increasingly acceptable.
Some 45% agree that it “makes no difference to children whether their parents are married to each other or just living together”, up from 38% in 1998.
But the statistics are not much comfort to Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg either. Liberal social views – just 36% think sexual relations between two adults of the same sex are always or mostly wrong, down from 62% in 1983 – but in 2007 and 2008 only 9% supported his party.
The independent figures issued by the National Centre for British Social Attitudes report were confirmed by other statistics indicating political opinions in the UK have moved right.
Public support for “tax and spend” is now at its lowest level since the early-80s, according to the statistics.
At the same time, the public has become markedly less sympathetic towards attempts to reduce inequality and help the less well-off.
According to experts, spending on services such as health and education has grown under a Labour government but the public appears increasingly inclined to say that ‘enough is enough’.
Only two in five people now support increased taxes and spending on health and education, the lowest level since 1984 and down from 62% in 1997.
The bad news for democracy is that the number of people who feel they have a civic duty to vote has fallen.
Only just over 50% of people believe everyone has a “duty” to vote in general elections compared with 68% in 1991. Among the under 35s, just 41% feel this way.
Large sections of the population may be at home on polling day – widely expected to be on May 6 – robbing whoever forms the incoming administration of legitimacy.
The last decade has seen a hardening of views about cannabis, most likely reflecting concerns about its dangers; in 2001, 46% thought it should be illegal, rising to 58% now.
There is limited support for the SNP Scottish government’s view that the price of alcohol should be put up to encourage people to drink less. A quarter of people in England think the government should tax alcohol more heavily for this reason, with opposition greatest among men, the young and heavy drinkers and no evidence that poorer groups oppose these measures any more than wealthier ones.
Shadow Scottish secretary David Mundell said the survey “illustrates that the British people know the Conservative Party is in tune with what people want and a vote for David Cameron to become prime minister is not a wasted one in Scotland.