Insight

Limited support for ‘Margaret Thatcher Day’

Limited support for ‘Margaret Thatcher Day’

A group of Conservative backbenchers have proposed an ?Alternative Queen?s Speech? containing over 40 radical policies intended to, in the words of MP Peter Bone, ?deliver the policies that the British public really want’.

We put a selection of these ideas to the test of British public opinion.

Camping outside the Public Bill Office in Westminster for four nights, they were able to get their private members? bills in early, and hope they will form the basis of a future Conservative manifesto.

Wellingborough MP Peter Bone, says the proposals would ?deliver the policies that the British public really want?. We decided to put this to the test by polling 1,650 likely voters on a selection of these policies.

The least popular policy we tested was renaming the late August Bank Holiday ?Margaret Thatcher Day?. Just 12% would support this, while two thirds (67%) of voters are opposed. Even among Tory voters, just 23% approved of the idea. This was, however, higher than the 13% of UKIP voters who approved.

Privatizing the BBC was met with 42% opposition and 28% support.

Laws regarding foreign nationals, such as continued restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanian nationals living and working in the UK received strong support with 73% in agreement. Conservative and UKIP supporters are most in favour with 80% and 92% respectively backing the measure. Additionally, restricting foreign nationals? access to public services was met with 72% support of UK voters, increasing to 83% of Conservative voters and 90% of UKIP voters.

Nearly two in three (62%) UK voters would support a law to prohibit the wearing of certain face coverings, such as the Burka, whilst one in five (20%) oppose this.

Slightly under half of all UK voters (44%) would support the passing of the bill to require schools to stay open during adverse weather conditions, 28% oppose this.

Opinium Research carried out an online survey of 1,954 GB adults aged 18+ from 25th – 28th June 2013. Results have been weighted to nationally representative criteria.

Interview Method and Sample

This survey is conducted online by CAWI (computer aided web interviewing), using Opinium?s online research panel of circa 30,000 individuals. This research is run from a representative sample of GB adults (aged 18+ in England, Scotland and Wales). The sample is defined from pre-collected registration data containing gender, age (18-34, 35-54, and 55+), region (North East, North West, Yorkshire and Humberside, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, London, South East, South West, Wales, and Scotland), working status and social grade to match the latest published ONS figures.

Opinium also takes into account differential response rates from the different demographic groups, to ensure the sample is representative.