Will COVID19 Change What The Public Expect of Government?

COVID19 has created a major social and economic shock that has impelled government intervention on a scale unprecedented in peace time. A key question that now arises is whether this experience has changed voters' expectations of what government can and should do - and so altered the climate of public opinion with which politicians will have to deal once the public health crisis has ended. This study will use survey research to assess whether attitudes in Britain have changed in three areas. First, has the anxiety created by the crisis and the experience of social distancing made us more or less trusting of others and tolerant of those who behave differently from ourselves? Second, has the economic shock and risk of unemployment changed our attitudes towards government spending and the provision of welfare to those of working age? Third, has the experience of an internationally transmitted disease created an increased wish to control our borders, most notably in respect of immigration? The first survey will be conducted in 2020, the second in 2021. Both will ask questions that were previously asked on surveys before the pandemic, thereby making it possible to see how attitudes have changed.