The first post-CSR survey of public opinion I’ve seen has been published by KPMG and Ipsos Mori. They have spun the results as:
The majority (59%) of the British public believe that it is necessary to cut spending on public services in order to pay off Britain’s high national debt
This means that confidence that the government’s policies will improve the state of the economy in the long term is the highest in over five years, they say. There is also majority support for a higher pension age, cuts in welfare spending and ending child benefit for higher rate taxpayers.
But the more interesting line – I would argue – is that 68 per cent of those surveyed, more than two-thirds, believe it would be better to cut spending more slowly. That should sound a note of caution for George Osborne. It also seems to reinforce the wisdom of Ed Miliband’s decision to pick Alan Johnson as shadow chancellor rather than Ed Balls.
Ipsos MORI interviewed a representative sample of 817 adults aged 18+ across Great Britain. Interviews were conducted by telephone on the 20th October 2010.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey