Nearly half (45 per cent) of the respondents to a survey has said that equal rights ‘had not gone far enough’ for black and Asian people in UK. Two decades ago, the proportion was 25 per cent.
The latest annual poll of British social attitudes has also revealed that the proportion of people who felt race quality improved in the country fell to 19 per cent in 2021 from 35 per cent in 2000. A third of respondents felt things were about right.
The survey carried out by National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) revealed that more than half (54 per cent) agreed it was not important to be born in Britain to be ‘truly British’, up from 25 per cent in 2013.
There was a clear shift in perception about Britain as 34 per cent agreed Britain is ‘a better country than most others, down from 54 per cent in 2013.
The survey also found out shift in views on immigration as only 20 per cent said that it is bad for economy, compared to 42 per cent in 2011. The percentage of people who support immigration rose from 21 per cent to 50 per cent during the period.
Majority of people in Britian also support liberal views on issues such as racial equality, immigration and sexual identity, the survey has said.
“Our survey suggests the public faces the cost of living crisis with as much appetite for increased government spending as it had during the pandemic. Despite the marked increase in public expenditure during the pandemic, support for increased taxation and spending is relatively high, even among Conservative supporters,” Gillian Prior, NatCen’s chief executive, was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
As many as 73 per cent of the respondents said that rights for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals has not been improved, compared with 62 per cent in 2013.
About 64 per cent of people thought rights for transgender people ‘had not gone too far’, compared to 34 per cent who said so eight years ago.
In the wake of the cost of living crisis, there was a strong public public support for increased taxation and public spending, including on social security benefits.
According to the survey, Public satisfaction on NHS dropped to 36 per cent, its lowest level since 1997 mainly due to long waiting times for hospital and GP appointments and lack of government funding.
Over half (51 per cent) of the respondents favoured introduction of a proportional representation system (PR) for voting MPs into the House of Commons, up from 27 per cent in 2011). While a majority of Labour voters supported PR (61 per cent) only 29 per cent of conservatives favoured electoral reform.
More than half (57 per cent) of those surveyed said they were willing to pay to protect the environment. Concerns over the climate crisis doubled to 40 per cent when compared to 2010.
As many as 6,250 people have responded to the survey which was conducted between 16 September and 31 October 2021.
