Political

How does your part of the country compare to the rest? Policy Exchange’s findings

On Monday morning I spoke at the event launching the fascinating Policy Exchange report Northern Lights, which takes a close look at how political attitudes vary around the country.

One question which particularly caught my eye is the one asking about attitudes to your local area, analysing how these responses varied between the North, London and the rest of the South.

Some results are unsurprising – such as that people in the North do not think their own area is prosperous compared to the rest of the country but people in the rest of the South, and even more so in London, do. There is also a fair degree of political cynicism in the answers. Everyone thinks their area pays more into government than it gets back.

But everyone – even in the north – disagrees with the statement that, “The public sector provides more of the jobs [in their area] than in most of the rest of the country”. Less surprising is that all parts of the country agree that their part is nicer than the rest, but Northerners strongly agree people in their area are nicer than elsewhere and Londoners strongly disagree. (People elsewhere in the South only slightly disagree.)

(Note: the labels for London / rest of South are the wrong way round in the chart below.)
Policy Exchange graph - attitudes to own area
All in all, plenty to chew over in the details.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All comments and data you submit with them will be handled in line with the privacy and moderation policies.