Confidence soars in Scots response over UK – even before slogan switch
The majority of Scots have more confidence in the Scottish Government to stop a further outbreak of coronavirus than UK ministers, a survey suggests.
Nearly two-thirds of Scottish respondents (62 per cent) believe Holyrood ministers are capable of preventing a second wave of Covid-19, while 38 per cent said they were confident in the UK government doing so. The findings are amongthepreliminaryresults from the Uk-wide Covidlife survey launched last month by the University of Edinburgh’s Generation Scotland project.
When asked about the ability of the Scottish Government to prevent a further outbreak, 9 per cent said they were very confidentand53percentwere somewhat confident.
This compares to 27 per cent who were not very confident and 10 per cent who were not confident at all.
The poll surveyed 11,686 people in Scotland, with wider figures including a further 640 respondents in England.
Just 3 per cent of the Scottish and English respondents said they were very confident the UK government could prevent a second wave, 34 per cent were somewhat confident, 40 per cent were not very confident, and 23 per cent said they were not confident at all.
Among those in Scotland, 3 per cent said they were very confident in the UK government, 35 per cent were somewhat confident, 40 per cent were not very confident, and 22 per cent said they were not confident at all. The period of the survey – 17 April to 7 May – marked a time when both governments were conveying the “stay at home” message.
Professor David Porteous, lead investigator for Covidlife, said: “Our volunteers were markedly less confident in Westminster’s ability to prevent a second outbreak of Covid-19 than Holyrood’s. This was for the period when the Uk-wide message was ‘stay at home’.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are very grateful to the public for their continuing support of the ‘stay at home, save lives’ essential message.”