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CHAPTER NINE: CONCLUSIONS
9.1 As discussed in the opening chapter of this report,
one of the founding principles of the
Scottish Social Attitudes survey was to develop
time series data about public attitudes towards a range of
social and political issues. This report has presented a
number of tables and figures which illustrate how views
have been changing over the past six years. One very clear
pattern particularly stands out in relation to the issues
of trust, influence, and broader perceptions of devolution:
views are not static. It is not yet possible to identify
possible explanations why views have sometimes been quite
different over the year (the most notable being the
undulating patterns evident in Figures 3.1, 4.1 and 5.4 ).
Chapter 3 suggested that the coincidence of elections (to
Holyrood in 1999 and 2003, and Westminster in 2001) might
in part explain why views are different in odd and even
years. The 2005 survey will provide one more round of data
from an election year with which to compare views over time
so it might be possible to draw firmer conclusions once
that has been conducted.
9.2 Chapter 2 presented interesting results about
people's knowledge of the Scottish Executive and Scotland's
devolved institutions more generally. This will be
interesting to monitor over time as public exposure to the
Executive's activities becomes more diffuse. Looking a bit
further forward, it will be particularly interesting to see
whether young people leaving school in 2011 (who started
school in the same year the Scottish Parliament opened) are
more or less knowledgeable than young people were in 2004.
It will also be possible to establish whether young people
in particular have grown more knowledgeable a result of
their exposure to issues about Scottish government through
schooling, or whether the population as a whole has
changed.
9.3 Chapter 7 saw some interesting patterns in relation
to people's apportioning of responsibility for standards of
public services. People are gradually becoming more likely
to apportion responsibility to the Scottish Executive for
policy areas directly within their remit such as health and
education, though with health people have not yet settled
for either the Executive or the
UK Government in any consistent way.
2005 has seen a large number of key announcements in
relation to Scotland's health service (for example the Kerr
Report into hospital services, or problems with
NHS 24). It will be interesting to see
whether people in 2005 looking back at the performance of
the health service over the previous twelve months are more
likely than people were in 2004 to apportion responsibility
at the door of the Executive.
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