Social Attitudes research: Britons lose sympathy for unemployed as they become more self-reliant.
I went to school in the era of free milk, penny savings banks where we took our 2 shillings in on Mondays to save for our futures and more regular, than I enjoyed, visits by the nit nurse. Although we didn’t know it at the time a big benign state was watching over us. The latest Social Attitudes Survey suggests all that post war paternalism is increasingly becoming a thing of the past. The article explains
The annual study of how people’s lives are changing by the National Centre for Social Research showed that despite widespread concern over economic disparity, the public does not believe greater Government intervention is justified. Britons are increasingly looking to themselves for solutions to social problems rather than the Government.
I don’t think this is a bad thing per-se. I also think in many communities and particularly (because of the need to work together to overcome the implications of a lack of access to services) rural communities, the “little state” in the form of neighbourhoods is good at looking after itself without the level of top down intervention which used to pertain. I also think the enhanced freedom for individuals to follow their own personal interests through TV and the internet and increasingly through activities such as home working, mean that the sort of collective pursuits and values underpinning the old welfare state are in long term decline.
I am not sure however how this should be reflected in public policy. The recession is accelerating the rate at which organisations are thinking about devolving service delivery to local communities. The effective transfer of power and responsibility in real places is much slower and complex than the rhetoric about it. I am sure it is the way forward and that in the light of the latest outcomes of the survey with which I started this review it chimes increasingly with public attitudes. How to make it work effectively and fairly – that is the question and one which is still be substantively answered by deeds rather than words.