Who is having a good crisis? Medics and doctors remain much loved. The NHS walks on water. Boris Johnson remains better regarded than he was at the time of his election victory in December and Rishi Sunak, currently employing 9.3 million people in the private sector, has some of the highest ratings for any politician we have ever seen.
Keir Starmer has made a very good start, and has ratings similar to those of the young Tony Blair in 1994, although Labour remain behind in the polls, whereas Ed Miliband got 12 points ahead of David Cameron in 2010/15.
So far, the losers of the crisis – apart from the 1,000s of dead and their friends and relatives, the unemployed or soon-to-be unemployed – have been the charities, the businesses and public sector organisations whose income has disappeared.
This includes much of local government, already feeling the pinch, and likely to be squeezed again, and above all, care homes.
These are the organisations that come in for the most criticism from the public – in my view often through absolutely no fault of their own.
Looking across the public sector, 20% overall, and 32% in Scotland say they have handled the crisis badly, compared to 3% who criticise the NHS – which by all accounts often discharged people with the virus into care homes.
However, at least in terms of public opinion, local government itself has come out better than the civil service – with 55% saying local authorities did a good job compared to 47% for the civil service.
Of course, local government is routinely more trusted than central Government, but that doesn’t seem to help it when it comes to handing out the cash, or getting any more devolution.
Dominic Cummings promises a ‘hard rain’ for the Civil Service, but whether this trickles down in any positive way to local government, now dealing with the likely consequences of a sharp rise in unemployment, and an ever more needy ageing population, remains to be seen. And the pandemic is by no means over yet.
Ben Page is chief executive of Ipsos MORI
@benatipsosmori
