Covid ‘connected Britain’
SOCIETY SHOULD BUILD ON PANDEMIC COMMUNITY SPIRIT, SAY EXPERTS
THE coronavirus pandemic has united communities across the UK, the biggest survey of public attitudes during the height of the crisis has said.
A survey of nearly 160,000 people revealed three times as many believe Covid-19 has made their community more united (41 per cent) than more divided (13 per cent).
The study, Our Chance to Reconnect, organised by Talk/Together, found most respondents felt people in their local area had become closer, kinder and better connected.
Bishop Nick Baines, chair of Talk/Together trustees, said the unity shown during the pandemic was “quite remarkable”, given how divided society looked as Britain entered 2020.
“Faced with this adversity, we could have become more divided and looked for others to blame,” Baines said.
“Yet this new research finds that people feel a stronger sense of connection to their neighbours and community (…)
“We found a clear public appetite for a society in which we are more connected to each other and the community spirit of 2020 is kept alive.”
Analysis also highlighted the number of volunteers during the crisis – an estimated 12.4 million people offered to help during the pandemic. Around 4.6 million of them volunteered for the first time, of whom 75 per cent would do it again.
Nearly seven in 10 people took part in the weekly Clap for Carers, a social movement created as a gesture of appreciation for the healthcare workers of the UK. For many people, the event was a time when they got to know their neighbours better.
Jill Rutter, of thinktank British Future and co-ordinator of the Talk/Together project, reflected on the experiences of people across the UK.
“We’ve listened to the fears and frustrations that people felt during this extraordinary period,” Rutter said.
“But we also heard how people reached out to neighbours and to strangers, feeling a greater sense of connection to each other, particularly at local level. This is something we can build on if we choose to, but it will take work to prevent new divisions, whether by wealth or geography, politics, age or identity, from undermining people’s hopes for a more connected society.”
Imam Qari Asim, the imam of Leeds Makkah Mosque and chair of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, said the report and reaction of his local community proved society had pulled together, not apart.
“We have welcomed people of different faiths, ethnicities and backgrounds to our weekly food bank. We couldn’t have done that without the help of volunteers and the community as a whole,” Asim said.
The Talk/Together study involved an online survey with almost 80,000 responses, five national polls with a total sample size of more than 10,000 people and in-depth discussion groups with almost 300 online participants from across the UK. Visit www.together.org.uk for further information on the survey.