Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The purpose of this study was to assess public attitudes to Parliament and to Members of Parliament.Main Topics:Attitudinal/Behavioural Questions Respondents were asked for information about newspaper readership and interests, television viewing and interest, favoured subjects for discussion with family and friends, their general interest in politics, ways which they find most useful for finding out about Parliament, things they find most effective to do in order to change public policy and laws and who, from a given list of seventeen groups (Parliament, the Courts, the Queen, etc.), they consider most able or liable to best look after individual rights, to be most interested in ordinary people or about whom they know least. Concerning Parliament itself, they were asked how interested they are in what goes on in Parliament and for their assessment of Parliament and how well it works. Each respondent was then given a self-completion questionnaire on which they were asked to rate both the present Parliament and the ideal Parliament on a number of characteristics (dull - lively, dignified - undignified, middle-class, etc.) using a seven-point scale. The respondent was asked for his assessment of the proper areas of concern for Parliament and of the effectiveness of Parliament's action in these areas, whether anything discussed in Parliament has personally affected the respondent or his family and friends, the extent of his knowledge of elections for Parliament, his agreement or disagreement with a group of statements concerning Parliament's relevance and importance of the House of Lords (with reasons for each), and his opinion of what should happen in Parliament. Concerning Members of Parliament, the respondent was asked to rate the value of various jobs, including MP, doctor, trade union leader, etc., to the community as a whole using a four-point scale, to assess the influences of each job, and...