THE latest survey on public attitudes to coronavirus in Scotland has been published, revealing levels of trust in the Westminster and Holyrood governments.
The poll, which is carried out by YouGov and published by the Scottish Government, covers the period from November 3 to December 30 – before the current “stay at home” lockdown restrictions came in.
The survey found that levels of optimism increased at the start of November but declined towards the very end of the year to levels similar to those recorded at the beginning of the March lockdown.
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Elsewhere, more than half of parents with young children reported concerns over the impact of a lack of school or nursey on their kids’ mental health.
From November to December there was an increase in the proportion of people who agreed that the best thing to do during the pandemic is to follow the official government advice – three quarters of people agreed with this at the end of 2020.
The survey also found that self-assessed compliance with official Covid-19 guidance is strong, with four-fifths of people rating their compliance with the rules as a six or seven out of seven.
On government trust, the poll showed similar trends to those seen throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
People trust the Scottish Government more than twice as much as they do the UK Government, it found.
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At the start of November 22% of Scots said they completely or mostly trust the UK Government to deliver information on Covid-19, as opposed to 64% of Scots saying the same thing about the Scottish Government.
However trust in the Scottish Government fell slightly at the end of the December. “Despite this, around seven in 10 report to trust the Scottish Government to work in Scotland’s best interests,” the report said.
The information was published a day after Boris Johnson came to Scotland to promote the role of the Union during the pandemic.
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The findings will be unpleasant reading for his government. As well as poor levels of trust, the poll found very few people use UK Government sources to access information about coronavirus.
People were most likely to watch the First Minister’s daily briefing to find out information about Covid-19, with 38% of respondents reporting that they access this source regularly.
BBC TV news for Scotland was second on 33%, while the Scottish Government website and social media channels were third with 29%.
Further down the list on 15% was the Prime Minister’s briefings “when they occur”, while the UK Government website was fourth from the bottom on just 9%.
The full report can be read here.
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