The number of people who think the United Kingdom is in a “bad state” continues to rise, polling has found, and a plurality think it’s doing worse than other Western countries.
Just one per cent of Britons think the country is in a “very good state”, polling by YouGov finds, while an overwhelming majority are much more pessimistic.
A massive 82 per cent of respondents said the UK is in a bad state, and 36 per cent viewing the country as being in a “very bad state”. This number has crept up slightly since the last time this question was asked by the pollster, with 80 per cent saying “bad state” last Spring, just before the UK’s previous general election.
While a two per cent increase in total bad feeling isn’t huge, overall pessimism was shown by the YouGov figures to have soared massively that time by the number of people who say they believe things will get worse.
Six-in-ten Britons said they think the condition of the country will get slightly or much worse over the next year, up from just four-in-ten last year.
Under one per cent of Britons polled — less than a rounding error — said they anticipate things are likely to get “much better” in 12 months time.
Comparing the state of Britain to other Western nations, the country is more uncertain, but nevertheless the plurality is still for gloom, with the largest group being for the UK in a “worse state than most Western countries”.
In all, the doing-less-well camp accounted for 48 per cent of respondents while 31 per cent said Britain is doing “about average” for the West.
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