YouGov’s Religion Barometer

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Twice as many adults think that Britain today is too secular as deem it too religious, but just over one-half believe that religion in Britain is in terminal decline and that religion in general is more often a cause of evil than of good in the world.

These are some of the key findings from the latest YouGov survey for The Sunday Times, and published today. Online interviews were conducted with a sample of 1,772 Britons aged 18 and over on 16 and 17 February 2012. Data tables can be found at:

http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/6195qkb1kr/YG-Archives-Pol-ST-results-17-190212.pdf

The first of eight questions on religion was ‘Do you think that religion is more often the cause of good or evil in the world?’ Only 12% elected for good, and no more than 17% in any demographic sub-group. 58% opted for evil, with the main variation being by gender (61% of men, 54% of women). 27% said that neither answer applied or both equally.

With regard to religion in Britain, 17% viewed Britain today as too religious, 36% as too secular, 31% as balanced between religious and secular, and 17% expressed no opinion. Men and the under-40s were marginally more likely to describe Britain as too religious, Conservatives, the over-60s and Londoners as too secular.

49% agreed that religion still provides critical guidance for our everyday lives, with 40% dissenting and 12% unsure. The age cohort with the lowest level of agreement was 25-59 years (43%). While the peak of 61% among the over-60s was to be expected, less predictable was the 50% recorded for the 18-24s.

Respondents were next asked whether the Church of England continues to carry out a valuable role, a question obviously prompted by Her Majesty the Queen’s speech at Lambeth Palace on 15 February.

YouGov’s respondents were split on this issue, with 42% agreeing, 41% disagreeing, and 16% unsure. Most support for the Church came from Conservative voters (55%), partially justifying ‘the Tory Party at prayer’ sobriquet; least backing was found in Scotland (32%).

Since the Church of England is established (albeit only in England), it might seem slightly odd that 67% contended that religion should have no place in public life, being entirely a personal matter. Even Conservatives showed no deviation from this norm. 24% wanted religion to have a role in the public square, including 28% of the 18-24s.

51% assessed that religion in Britain is in terminal decline, with no great fluctuation by demographics. 24% disagreed and 26% did not know what to think, the largest proportion of undecided for any of the questions in this survey.

Belief in God stood at 38%, with 21% unsure, and 33% disbelieving. Believers were twice as numerous among Conservatives (45%) as Liberal Democrats (22%), and they were also somewhat concentrated in the over-60s (44%) and in Scotland (45%).

The final topic, triggered by the Bideford case, was whether local councils should be able to hold prayers at the beginning of their meetings. 53% of adults thought that they should (peaking at 66% of Conservatives and 65% of over-60s), 32% that they should not, with 15% undecided.

The pro-prayer lobby of 53% is consistent with the 55% figure obtained in another recent poll on the same subject, covered by BRIN at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2012/council-prayers/

All in all, this YouGov survey for The Sunday Times exemplifies the continuing hybrid of religiosity and secularity which characterizes British life. While the proponents of faith and non-faith progressively ‘up the ante’, public opinion declines to be completely and consistently polarized between the rival camps.

 

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Council Prayers

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Clive D. Field

In yet another paradox of public attitudes to religion, 55% of Britons agree that local councils should be allowed to hold prayers as part of formal council meetings, even though an identical proportion personally believe that councils should not hold such prayers, according to new research by YouGov and posted at:

http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/pe06bnkf18/YG-Archives-YouGov-ChristianCountryPrayers-160212.pdf

The online survey, in which 1,828 adults aged 18 and over were interviewed on 14-15 February 2012, was conducted in the aftermath of the recent (10 February) High Court judgment against Bideford Town Council that prayers held as part of its official business are not permitted under the Local Government Act 1972. The Council has voted to appeal the decision.

Meanwhile, Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, has fast-tracked an Order under the Localism Act 2011 which will effectively nullify the High Court ban by authorizing councils to exercise a ‘general power of competence’. The National Secular Society, which was a party in bringing the action against Bideford, is consulting its lawyers and apparently contemplating a fresh legal challenge.

Asked whether councils should hold prayers during their formal meetings, only 26% of YouGov’s respondents were in favour, 55% against, and 20% uncertain. Support for prayers was strongest among the very/fairly religious (52%), Christians (46%), the over-60s (40%), those considering that Britain should be a Christian country (40%), and Conservatives (34%).

However, irrespective of their personal view about whether councils should hold prayers, 55% thought that they should definitely be allowed to hold them, rising to 78% of Christians, 76% of the very/fairly religious, 72% of those wanting Britain to be a Christian country, 67% of over-60s, and 66% of Conservatives. Just 34% argued that councils should not be allowed to have prayers, with 11% expressing no opinion.

Another seeming contradiction surfaced in the poll was that, although only 24% of the sample described themselves as very or fairly religious and 43% regarded themselves as belonging to a religion, 56% agreed that Britain is a Christian country and 61% that it should be a Christian country.

Endorsement of the proposition that Britain should be a Christian country was highest among professing Christians (88%), the very or fairly religious (79%), over-60s (79%), and Conservative voters (77%). Dissentients numbered 22%, with 18% undecided.

What was especially interesting was that even 37% of those who considered themselves as not at all religious and 44% of those having no religion wanted Britain to be a Christian country. 41% and 43% respectively agreed that it already is such a country. 36% and 40% also thought that councils should be permitted to hold prayers before their formal meetings.

The irreligious, it therefore seems, can be just as equivocal about their ‘belief’ as the many self-identifying Christians whose lack of commitment to the faith was exposed in the Ipsos MORI poll for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (UK), and published last Tuesday.

As the proponents of faith on the one hand and secularism and rationalism on the other assume increasingly entrenched positions about the place of religion in national life, perhaps all parties need to understand that the great British public do not see things in quite such black and white terms.

The reality of public opinion is that religious beliefs and attitudes can be messy, fuzzy and – sometimes – contradictory, as they probably have been for generations past. The simplistic rhetoric of much current ‘debate’ may be in danger of obscuring this empirical complexity.

 

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Pray and Display

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Cash-strapped local authorities are looking at every conceivable way of trimming their costs, and some of their measures have been impacting and aggravating faith communities in recent months, such as through the withdrawal of free transport for pupils attending faith schools.

Since last summer, when Westminster led the way (albeit it was forced to rescind its own plans on 19 January 2012 in the face of strong opposition, including from Churches), city councils up and down the land have been planning to raise additional revenue from car parking charges, both on street and in car parks, especially in the evenings and on Sundays.

The trend was highlighted in the Sunday Times of 22 January 2012 in an article entitled ‘Councils Cash in on Sunday Parking’. This was underpinned by a YouGov poll commissioned by the newspaper in which 70% of the 1,711 adult Britons interviewed online on 19 and 20 January said that councils were not justified in charging for parking on Sundays. Opposition rose to 78% among the over-60s, the age cohort which contains a disproportionate number of churchgoers (although it is naturally not suggested that this was the sole or main motive for this oldest group objecting to paying for parking on Sundays).

The problem for the Churches is that there are still many historic places of worship in city centres, whose congregations are not primarily local, but come from a distance, often by private transport. Sunday parking charges, therefore, may conceivably affect both the quantum of worshippers they attract and the amount of money in the ‘collection plate’. It is sometimes alleged that Sunday car parking fees are ‘a tax on churchgoing’.

Are these fears well-founded? Unfortunately, there is little evidence to show, as yet, since the planned charges have often not come into operation. One small piece, however, derives from Nottingham, where charges for Sunday parking were introduced on 20 November 2011. A report in the Catholic Herald for 3 February 2012 quotes the Dean of St Barnabas Roman Catholic Cathedral as saying that, as a direct result of the parking fees, its congregations are down 10% and its monthly income by £2,000. 

Some towns, of course, have long charged for the use of their car parks on Sundays. A row of a different sort erupted last year when it emerged that Woking District Council had been allowing worshippers at three central churches to park in its Victoria Way and Brewery Road car parks on Sundays for free since 2003, even though shoppers had to pay. A request under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that £55,864 had thereby been saved by these worshippers between 1 January 2009 and 30 June 2011. The scheme, which was denounced by the National Secular Society as a potential breach of the Equality Act, is currently under review by the council.  

 

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Abu Qatada

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Clive D. Field

An overwhelming majority of Britons support the deportation to his native Jordan of Abu Qatada al-Filistini, the radical Muslim cleric implicated in Islamist terrorism, notwithstanding fears expressed by some that he may not receive a fair trial in his homeland.

This is according to a YouGov poll for today’s edition of The Sunday Times. A representative sample of 1,753 adults aged 18 and over was interviewed online on 9 and 10 February 2012. Data tables have been posted at:

http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/ly9ei68uye/YG-Archives-Pol-ST-results-10-120212.pdf

Abu Qatada has been in Britain since 1993, having been given asylum here in 1994 for reasons of religious persecution in Jordan. He has mostly been in British custody since shortly after 7/7 in 2005 but has been fighting deportation on human rights grounds.

Last week a High Court judge in a Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruled that Abu Qatada should be released on bail, to the fury of the UK Government and – it now seems – the general public, also.

70% of YouGov’s respondents opted for Abu Qatada’s deportation, regardless of whether he can be guaranteed a fair trial abroad. The over-60s and Conservative voters (82% each) especially clamoured for this.

20% wanted guarantees of a fair trial as a condition of deportation, with 18-24s (37%), Liberal Democrats (35%) and Londoners (30%) most in favour. Only 1% opposed deportation, with 9% unsure.

Confronted with the recent decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that Abu Qatada should not be deported to Jordan as evidence obtained from torture might be used against him, 54% wanted Britain to ignore the ECHR and deport Abu Qatada. Again, Conservatives (67%) and over-60s (68%) took the strongest line.

A further 33% (including 48% of Liberal Democrats and the 18-24s and 45% of Londoners) considered that Britain ought to abide by the ECHR ruling but seek assurances from Jordan that evidence obtained by torture would not be used against Abu Qatada. In the light of the ECHR judgment, the number opposed to deportation grew to 4%, with 8% uncertain what should be done.

However, the greatest hostility toward Abu Qatada was reserved for the suggestion that, once bailed, he might go back on to state benefits, as he had been before his arrest in 2005.

82% of YouGov’s sample opposed this possibility, rising to 91% of Conservative voters and the over-60s. Just 12% (but 26% of Liberal Democrats, 25% of Londoners and 21% of 18-24s) felt he should be able to claim benefits.

The replies to this last question exemplify, not simply negativity toward radical Islam, but an increasingly hardening public attitude toward recipients of state benefits, which has become very noticeable since the onset of economic recession in 2008.  

 

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Lords Spiritual

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Clive D. Field

‘Six out of ten Brits think bishops should be booted out of the House of Lords after defeating plans to cap benefits at £26,000 a year.’ So declared The Sun on 25 January 2012, following the poll it commissioned from YouGov on the public’s reactions to the Welfare Reform Bill.

The survey was undertaken online on 24 January 2012, among a sample of 749 adults aged 18 and over, and in the wake of the amendment to the Bill passed by the House of Lords the previous night, which had the effect of excluding child benefit from the £26,000 cap being proposed by the Government. Data tables have been posted at:

http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/pbzn4ckvyb/YG-Archives-Pol-Sun-BishopsHouseLords-260112.pdf

Five of the 26 senior bishops of the Church of England who are entitled to sit in the House of Lords had voted in favour of the amendment, and one of them (Rt Rev John Packer, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds) had actually proposed it. Three-fifths of YouGov’s interviewees opposed the amendment, and 74% supported the Government’s original cap.

Against this somewhat charged backdrop, YouGov asked whether bishops should still be allowed to sit and vote in the Upper Chamber. Only 26% of respondents said that they should, with 60% wanting them excluded, and 14% uncertain.

Removal of bishops from the House of Lords particularly appealed to Conservative and Liberal Democrat voters, 67% and 68% respectively. This was unsurprising, given that these are the two parties which form the Coalition Government, which had been on the receiving end of episcopal votes against the welfare cap.

Men were also more inclined than women to want the bishops unseated (64% versus 56%), while – less predictably – the anti-bishop lobby built by age, rising from 45% among the 18-24s to 70% with the over-60s. This partly reflected the large number of don’t knows (29%) in the 18-24 cohort.

The sample size for this poll was fairly small, and the context may have influenced the results. However, in an ICM survey for the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust in March 2010, just 33% believed it important for Anglican bishops to have a role in the House of Lords and 74% said that it was wrong for some of them to have automatic seats there. See BRIN’s coverage at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2010/religion-in-public-life-another-poll/

 

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Metal Theft

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Clive D. Field

2011 was the worst year on record for the number of claims received by the specialist Anglican insurer Ecclesiastical (founded in 1887) arising from the theft of lead and other valuable metals from churches, according to a press release issued on 1 January 2012.

The total of such claims received by Ecclesiastical in 2011 exceeded 2,500, surpassing the previous record of 2,400 in 2008. The Diocese of Chelmsford headed the list for metal-related claims, followed by Lincoln, Lichfield, London, and Southwell.

Such thefts from churches were denounced by the general public in an online survey conducted by YouGov for Ecclesiastical on 13-15 December 2011, in which 2,058 UK adults aged 18 and over were interviewed.

In answer to an apparently somewhat leading question, 49% of adults claimed they were ‘appalled’ by the systematic destruction of places of worship through metal theft, with a further 37% ‘saddened’ by the crime.

79% supported tougher sentences for those convicted of stealing metal from churches (analogous to the 82% wanting harsher punishments for thefts from war memorials in a separate YouGov poll on 1-2 December 2011).

The full YouGov data have not been put into the public domain, but Ecclesiastical’s press release can be found at:

http://www.ecclesiastical.com/general/press-office/index.aspx

 

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Seasonal Good Intentions

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Clive D. Field

One-quarter of Britons expect to attend a church service over the Christmas period this year, according to a YouGov poll on Christmas commissioned by The Sun newspaper and published in today’s issue under the heading of ‘We’re Dreaming of a Tight Christmas’.

A representative sample of 1,723 adults aged 18 and over was interviewed online on 27-28 November 2011. The full data tables, with breaks by demographics, have been made available at:

http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/90fr0t7zbi/Sun%20Results%20111202%20Christmas.pdf

While 65% do not think they will go to a church service over Christmas, 24% do, broken down into 6% who said they might worship on Christmas Day itself (a Sunday this year), 11% on Christmas Eve, and 7% on another Day around Christmas.

The proportion of putative attenders was identical to a YouGov poll a fortnight before last Christmas. It has varied somewhat since the question was first asked in British public opinion polls in 1964, sometimes reaching two-fifths (albeit not recently).

However, these intentions will often prove aspirational, not translated into reality. Unfortunately, it is hard to know what actually happens since the Church of England is the only major body to collect Christmas attendance data, and then just since 2000.

In an article in the Church of England Newspaper for 11 November 2011, Peter Brierley estimated that the Church of England accounts for 40% of Christmas attendance, rather than its more usual share of 28%. On this basis, he forecast that 11% of the entire population of the UK could be at church this Christmas.

The highest rate of anticipated Christmas churchgoing was found by YouGov among Londoners (35%) and the lowest among manual grades (18%, against 28% for ABC1s), but otherwise there was little variation by sub-group (from 20% to 26%).

Other highlights from this YouGov poll include:

  • 36% anticipated spending less on Christmas presents than last year, 49% about the same, and 10% somewhat more
  • 4% will be spending Christmas Day on their own, 51% with their spouse or partner, 44% with their children, 36% with their parents, and 21% with their siblings
  • 44% will definitely or probably watch the Queen’s speech on Christmas Day
  • 58% will log on to the Internet on Christmas Day (mostly to check email or Facebook)
  • 29% do not find Christmas stressful at all, but 30% get anxious about its cost, 20% about gift-shopping, and 7% about spending time with extended family
  • 25% expected to have a hangover some time over the Christmas period

Meanwhile, a separate TNS survey, carried out online between 29 November and 1 December 2011, has revealed that 21% of a sample of 1,064 adult Britons aged 16-64 plan to go to a carol service this month.

The proportion was higher for women (25%) than men (18%), ABC1s (26%) than C2DEs (14%), parents with children resident in the household (28%) than those without (18%), and for those who were not working (25%) than in employment (19%).

It also increased with age, from 14% among the 16-24s to 27% among the over-55s. Regionally, Scots (16%) and Londoners (13%) were least likely to attend a carol service, with Wales and Western England (29%) and the North-West (25%) scoring highest.

Data tables for the TNS poll are available at:

http://www.tns-ri.co.uk/_assets/files/December_Activity_Tables.pdf

Finally, for now (there will doubtless be other religion-related Christmas polls over the next few weeks), we may note a Christmas survey published by Theos, the think-tank, on 1 December, and based upon online interviews by ComRes with 2.032 adults aged 18 and over on 7-9 October 2011.

Respondents were asked to react to six statements about the meaning of Christmas. One of these was that ‘Christmas is about celebrating that God loves humanity’. 41% agreed with the proposition, 24% disagreed, and 35% were neutral.

Agreement increased with age, from 30% of the 18-24s to 52% of the over-65s. It was greater among women (45%) than men (37%), and public sector workers (42%) than in the private sector (36%). Unsurprisingly, it was much higher among Christians (58%) than those without any religion (12%).

The level of agreement with this statement was much less than the 83% who thought Christmas was about spending time with family and friends, and the 62% who believed it was about being generous to people less fortunate than ourselves.

40% contended that Christmas is a good excuse for taking time off but does not really have any meaning today. Just 19% saw the festival as an opportunity to challenge political oppression around the world and 34% poverty and economic injustice.

The data tables for the ComRes study, undertaken in conjunction with the launch of a new Theos report on The Politics of Christmas by Stephen Holmes (ISBN 978-0-9562182-7-8, £5), can be found at:

http://campaigndirector.moodia.com/Client/Theos/Files/ChristmasPoll.pdf

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Occupy London, Act II – Enter the Archbishop

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Occupy London’s anti-capitalist campsite outside St Paul’s Cathedral has now been there for three weeks and seems dug in for the long haul. The Dean and Chapter and the wider leadership of the Church of England have been increasingly challenged by its presence, not simply in terms of how to respond to it as a physical ‘neighbour’ but what line to take about the morality of capitalism and the world of high finance.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, finally entered the fray early last week in a statement on the resignation of the Dean of St Paul’s, an article in the Financial Times, and an interview with BBC News. In these utterances he stressed the importance of addressing the urgent issues raised by the protesters, put forward some solutions of his own for doing so (notably the Tobin Tax), and conceded that the Church had failed ‘to square the circle of public interest and public protest’ in dealing with Occupy London.

How has the public reacted to the Archbishop’s belated intervention? In an attempt to answer this question, YouGov covered the Occupy London movement in its poll for today’s issue of The Sunday Times. A representative sample of 1,561 British adults aged 18 and over was interviewed online on 3 and 4 November 2011, and the results have been posted at:

http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/2011-11-04/YG-Archives-Pol-Sun-results-041111.pdf

Asked to rate how Williams had dealt with the Occupy London campsite and subsequent events at the Cathedral, 41% said that he had handled the matter badly, 26% well, with 33% expressing no opinion (rising to 57% of the 18-24s). The groups most critical of the Archbishop were Conservative voters (54%), men (48%), and the over-60s (53%).

It is hard to interpret these findings, since the question was rather unspecific, gave no context about Williams’s views or actions, and thus will have been answered from diverse perspectives. In particular, was he being criticized by interviewees for the fact that he had intervened at all or because he had sat on the fence for so long before declaring his hand or a combination of both reasons?

Some clues may be implicit in replies to the next question about whether, regardless of this instance, senior clergy should comment on political matters. 45% said that it was wrong for them to do so, including 56% of Conservatives and 52% of over-60s. 38% accepted that the Church had a contribution to make to political debates, increasing to 45% among Labourites and Liberal Democrats and 44% of Londoners and Scots. 16% did not know what to think.

44% wanted the Cathedral and the Corporation of London to take legal action to remove the campsite from outside St Paul’s, 3% less than the figure in YouGov’s poll of 27-28 October, since when the threat of legal action has (in fact) been temporarily lifted. Conservatives (67%), men (51%), and the over-60s (53%) especially favoured invoking the law. 38% opposed legal action, with 18% undecided.

Support for Occupy London’s protest outside St Paul’s was only 20%, well down on the 39% who had endorsed the aims of the protesters in a somewhat different question the week before. 26% had then opposed the movement, whereas in the current poll 46% were hostile to it, particularly Conservatives (75%) and the over-60s (60%). But one-third expressed no views.

It is probably the case that the public is tiring of such physical occupations, on account of their disruptive effects on everyday life and what Williams has described as the dramatic ‘cataract of unintended consequences’ at St Paul’s, but the public perhaps does often continue to share the frustrations about the morality of the financial system which gave rise to the occupations.

It is noteworthy that, in an ICM telephone poll for The Guardian on 21-23 October (after Occupy London commenced its sit-in around St Paul’s on 15 October), 51% of 1,003 adults agreed that the worldwide protests were ‘right to want to call time on a system that puts profit before people’, whereas 38% believed there is no practical alternative to capitalism.

The flames of discord in the affair seem likely to be fanned tomorrow (7 November) by the publication of a report from the St Paul’s Institute on the moral standards of the City of London. This is based upon a ComRes survey of 500 workers in the City’s financial institutions conducted during the summer.

The report, previewed in today’s The Independent on Sunday, was originally due to appear on 27 October but was deferred when Dr Giles Fraser, Director of the Institute, resigned from his post of Canon Chancellor at St Paul’s Cathedral, the first of three ‘victims’ of the controversy at the Cathedral to date.

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Occupy London and St Paul’s Cathedral

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Clive D. Field

The photograph of St Paul’s Cathedral standing proud amid the chaos of the London Blitz was one of the most striking and iconic images of the Second World War, at once tangible evidence of a seeming miracle and a beacon of Britain’s endurance in adversity and of hope for eventual victory against the Axis Powers.

But the Cathedral has certainly been laid low during recent days by divisions among the Dean and Chapter over the Occupy London anti-capitalist campsite surrounding it, and by a flurry of criticism (some from within the Church of England) over the decision to shut the Cathedral completely for a week (on health and safety grounds) – something even the Luftwaffe failed to manage.

Now, thanks to a YouGov poll for today’s issue of The Sunday Times, we have the first real test of public opinion on the subject. A representative sample of 1,676 Britons aged 18 and over was interviewed online on 27 and 28 October 2011, and the results (with breaks by demographics) have been published in full at: 

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/sunday_times_results_111028_vi_and_trackers_website.pdf

Respondents were somewhat split in their attitudes to the aims of the protesters, with 39% in support, 26% opposed, and 35% undecided. Not unexpectedly, the most significant variation was by current voting intention, 54% of Labourites backing the goals of the protesters, against 18% of Conservatives (with Liberal Democrats on 49%).

However, a simple majority (53%) of the sample was clear that the Cathedral authorities had been wrong to shut the building, rising to 60% among men and 64% of the over-60s. 31% backed the decision of the Chapter to close the Cathedral, including 40% of Conservatives. 16% said that they did not know what to think.

Somewhat fewer (47%) wanted the Cathedral and the Corporation of London to initiate legal proceedings to remove the protesters from outside the Cathedral. Conservatives (73%) were most in favour of this course of action, twice the proportion in the other two main political parties. 39% were against legal steps, with 13% undecided.

The decision of Dr Giles Fraser, the left-leaning Canon Chancellor of the Cathedral, to resign from his position last Thursday in opposition to the threat of legal action against the protesters, was welcomed by 31% of respondents (including 43% of the over-60s). This group perhaps contained some who applauded Fraser’s principled stand but doubtless also those who were glad to see the back of a ‘turbulent priest’. 42% considered that he had been wrong to resign, and 27% expressed no opinion.

The YouGov poll additionally covered the changes to the laws of royal succession agreed at the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Australia. Unfortunately, the question posed about Roman Catholics did not reflect the specific amendment agreed, which was limited to those in the line of succession being able to marry a Catholic. No alteration is being mooted to the bar on a reigning monarch being a Catholic himself or herself, which is deemed incompatible with the constitutional role of the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

Nevertheless, the question is not without value as a litmus-test of residual anti-Catholicism. Respondents were asked whether they thought the law should be changed to permit a Catholic to succeed to the throne. 48% agreed with the suggestion, 33% disagreed, and 19% had no view.

Agreement was greatest among Liberal Democrat voters (64%), whose official party policy is to separate Church and State, and among Scots (65%). Opponents of the proposition were most numerous among Conservative voters (45%) and the over-60s (42%).

The evolution of public opinion on this topic, and on the establishment of the Church of England more generally, can be traced in an academic journal article published last week: Clive Field, ‘“A Quaint and Dangerous Anachronism”? Who Supports the (Dis)Establishment of the Church of England?’, Implicit Religion, Vol. 14, No. 3, September 2011, pp. 319-41.

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Psychics

Posted on October 8, 2011 by Clive D. Field

The age of reason has not yet fully dawned, apparently. Almost one-quarter of British adults claim to have consulted a psychic or medium, even though many fewer (one in seven) believe that these intermediaries have a real ability to predict the future and/or talk to the dead.

This is according to a YouGov survey published on 5 October. Fieldwork was conducted online among a representative sample of 2,500 Britons aged 18 and over on 25-26 September 2011. The data tables are available at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-psychics-051011.pdf

Asked whether they had ever consulted a psychic or medium, 75% said no and 23% yes. Of the latter, 11% had done so only for fun and 12% with serious intent. Women (32%) were far more likely to have visited a psychic than men (12%). The 18-24s also recorded a low figure (13%).

The overall proportion who had consulted a psychic or medium was consistent with previous YouGov polls in October 2004 (24%) and October 2007 (25%) and with the Hereafter Report of January 2011 (22%), but it was larger than in a Populus survey of April 2005 (17%).

Of those who had consulted a psychic or medium, 57% felt the consultation had been truthful and 33% untruthful, with 9% uncertain. The perception of truthfulness increased with age, from 40% among the 18-24s to 62% with the over-60s. It was also higher among manual workers (63%) than non-manuals (52%) and comparatively low for Londoners and Scots (51%).

However, just 14% of the whole sample actually believed that psychics have a genuine ability to predict the future and/or talk to the dead, comprising 7% of men and 20% of women. 58% did not consider that psychics have such skills, of whom nearly three in five (34%) contended that they were deliberately deceiving the public.

Such deception has been in the news lately, with doubts raised about the genuineness of one of the country’s best-known psychics.

Finally, respondents were asked by YouGov to rate how spiritual they judged themselves. Three-fifths said that they were not spiritual, rising to 71% with men, 65% for 18-24s, and 64% for non-manual workers.

35% described themselves as spiritual, including 45% of women and 40% of the over-60s. This compares with 32% in last January’s Hereafter Report, which also gave religiosity as an alternative to spirituality, a choice not available in the current YouGov poll.

 

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