13 - 10 - 2020 / Polling
HUGE POLL CONTRAST BETWEEN UK AND SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT
Markedly different public attitudes towards the Scottish and UK Governments, on coronavirus handling by both administrations and between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon are the latest to be released from a super-sized poll conducted by Survation for Progress Scotland.
The opinion poll of 2,093 respondents found that across a range of attributes the UK government is seen in a largely negative terms while the Scottish government is seen in largely positive terms.
When excluding respondents who didn’t know or neither agreed or disagreed are excluded the following results were found:
Competence
67% think the Scottish Government IS competent
70% of people think the UK government is NOT competent
Effectiveness
68% believe the Scottish Government IS effective
69% of people believe the UK government is NOT effective
Responsive
73% think the Scottish government IS responsive
65% of people think the UK government is NOT responsive
Good at communicating with public
80% believe that the Scottish government IS good at communicating with the public
72% believe the UK government is NOT good at communicating with the public
Empathetic
71% think the Scottish government IS empathetic
80% think the UK government is NOT empathetic
Authoritative is the only measure where the UK government had a positive rating
55% of people believe the Westminster government IS authoritative
76% believe the Scottish Government IS authoritative
Specifically on Coronavirus performance respondents had markedly more positive view on the handling of the pandemic by the Scottish Government than the UK Government and by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon compared to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Performance of governments perceptions of how the Scottish Government has dealt with the pandemic are significantly higher than perceptions of the UK.
When asked on a 0-10 scale for each government, over a quarter of voters (27%) gave the UK government the lowest score (0), compared to just 1 in 10 (9%) giving the Scottish government a 0 score, while maximum 10 out of 10 scores were given to the Scottish government by 15% compared to just 2% for the UK government.
More widely, 60% rated Scottish government in the positive column (6-10), compared to 16% for the UK government.
Performance of leaders similarly, the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon received higher ratings for her handling of the pandemic than the Prime Minister for his. 4 in 10 Scots (39%) gave the PM 0 out of 10 for his handling of the crisis compared to just 2% who scored him 10 out of 10.
Meanwhile, around 1 in 10 Scots (9%) gave the FM 0 out of 10 and 1 in 5 scored her performance as 10/10. More widely, 12% rated the PM’s performance in the positive column (6-10) compared to 62% who rated the FM performance as 6-10.
Progress Scotland managing director Angus Robertson said:
“This poll illustrates the significant difference in general public attitudes between the UK Government and the Scottish Government, which is largely positive towards Holyrood and negative towards Westminster.
“These findings are also mirrored in relation to specific questions on the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and between First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“Earlier parts of the poll have already been released which reflect how much opinion is changing in Scotland and impacting on views towards Scottish independence. The poll has already established that the highest-ever percentage of voters in Scotland now believe that there would be a YES victory if a referendum were held tomorrow and that one third of 2014 NO voters have changed their minds to YES or are not sure how they would vote.
Progress Scotland independent polling adviser Mark Diffley said:
“The pandemic has seen different strategies and decisions being made by the governments in London and Edinburgh and this has impacted on public attitudes towards the handling of the crisis by those governments and their leaders.
“On every measure, whether specifically related to crisis handling or on performance more broadly, voters in Scotland tend to have greater levels of support for the government in Edinburgh. The crisis has seen a great deal of commentary on the different communication styles between the governments and their leaders and there is a steer from the polling about which has been better received by voters.”
Pollster analysis by Mark Diffley:
On each of the six measures covered in the survey, being authoritative, responsive, competent, effective, good at communicating with the public and empathetic, the Scottish government scores more highly than the UK government,
The UK government has a positive rating among Scots for being authoritative (43% agree, 34% disagree, net +9 points) but negative ratings on all other measures, as high as -37 points for communication, -34 points for being empathetic, -34% for being competent and -30 points for being effective
Conversely, the Scottish government has positive ratings on all measure asked; particularly striking is that 67% think the Scottish government has been good at communicating with the public, compared to 17% who disagree, a net positive rating of +50%. Other high net positive ratings are on being authoritative (+39 points), being responsive (+37 points) and being empathetic (+31 points)