|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
UK: Scotland: OPED: Mood Of Change Seizes Scots
ccguide Wednesday 09 Feb 2000 Pubdate: Sun, 06 Feb 2000 Source: Scotland On Sunday (UK) Copyright: 2000 The Scotsman Publications Ltd. Contact: Address: 108 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 8AS, Scotland Fax: (+44) 0131 226 7420 Author: John Curtice Note: John Curtice is Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University MOOD OF CHANGE SEIZES SCOTS Tide Turns As People Accept Shifting Social Landscape In Defiance Of Church And State MO MOWLAM is against them but once dabbled herself. Jack Straw is against too but his son was once caught with them. Labour's hard-line stance on drugs has already proved a potential source of political embarrassment. Now our ICM/Scotland on Sunday 2000 poll suggests the government may have misjudged the tide of public opinion too. No less than 43% of Scots now say that taking cannabis should be made legal. Although this is less than the 48% who say it should remain illegal, the result shows that far from being politically unmentionable, there are now a significant number of Scots who are beginning to question the law on cannabis. Indeed, opinion appears to be moving dramatically. Four years ago there was still a decisive majority against change, with 58% against the legalisation of cannabis and just 34% in favour. Our poll gives every reason to suggest that opinion will continue to change. Among our special sample of nearly 350 'young Scots' aged 18 to 24, 60% are in favour of the legalisation of cannabis while just 35% are against. Their views are largely shared by 25 to 34-year-olds. Only among the over-55s is there still a clear majority opposed. We already have the first generation of politicians to admit that they tried cannabis in their youth. Now it looks as though the next generation may have to consider taking the next step of converting their honesty into support for reform. Indeed, one party leader, Charles Kennedy, has already called for a Royal Commission on the subject. But opinions on cannabis are perhaps but the latest manifestation of a broader wind of social change sweeping across Scotland. Many traditional values have, it seems, already been overturned. Indeed, although it may be that Cardinal Thomas Winning, head of Scotland's Catholics, is in tune with the majority of Scots on the teaching of homosexuality in schools - as the poll showed two weeks ago - on many other issues the Catholic hierarchy appears isolated. The Catholic Church wishes to retain the system of separate Catholic schools in Scotland, but an overwhelming 84% of Scots believe these should be phased out, while just 13% say they should be retained. Even among Catholics themselves, just 31% favour the retention of separate schools. Moreover, opinion seems to have hardened over the past decade. In 1992, the Scottish Election Study found there were still 20% in favour of separate schools. Yet so far, as has been the case with legalising cannabis, few politicians have been willing to broach the issue in public. The Catholic Church is, of course, also against abortion. Yet our poll suggests there is little enthusiasm for changing the existing law, which, depending on the health and circumstances of the woman, allows an abortion at up to 24 weeks. Just 14% think the law should be changed to make it harder for a woman to get an abortion, counterbalanced by 15% who think it should be made easier. Meanwhile two in three Scots think the law should remain as it is, including 62% of Catholics. Moral campaigners opposed to artificial contraception are also going against the mood of the country, specifically on the issue of making contraceptive advice available to those aged below the age of consent, that is 16. Yet more than four in five Scots say that doctors and nurses should be allowed to give contraceptive advice to under-16s. And again, Catholics themselves are largely in tune with their fellow Scots, with three-quarters in favour. The Catholic Church preaches the indissolubility of marriage and that children should be brought up by both parents. Yet 62% of Scots believe that a single parent can bring up a child as well as two parents can. Just 34% disagree. Among women 70% feel a single parent can do just as good a job. In short it looks as though some of the biggest social changes in family life in the second half of the 20th century - abortion, contraception and single parenthood - have now become an accepted part of life. We evidently should not assume that the legalisation of cannabis and an undivided schooling system might not also similarly come to be an accepted part of our social landscape during the 21st century. Certainly, young Scots appear to have accepted the social changes that were part of their own childhood. They are particularly likely to think that a single parent can bring up a child as well as two parents, with 74% taking that view. They are also somewhat more likely to favour making abortion easier to obtain, though at 19% this proportion is dwarfed by the 66% who want things to remain as they are. And 85% of them think that doctors and nurses should be allowed to give contraceptive advice to under-16s. But not all change is desired or desirable. Many people argue that our 20th century love affair with the car will have to end before many years of the 21st century have passed. But separation is not yet on most people's agenda. A full 58% oppose the idea of charging motorists a pound or two every time they drive into a city centre at peak times. Only 36% are in favour, though among young Scots this figure does rise to 45%. At the same time Scots have not lost faith in the merits of the country's traditionally strong public education system. Just 37% say that they would send a child of theirs to a private school even if they could afford to do so or say they actually have a child at such a school at the moment. As many as 59% say they would not send a child to a private school. Equally, frequently expressed concerns that rising rates of school exam passes reflect declining standards rather than higher levels of achievement do not receive a widespread echo. For every Scot who thinks that the standards of Highers and Standard Grades are lower now than they were 10 years ago, there is another who thinks they are higher, while one in three think that little has changed. And among our young Scots who have the most recent experience at the chalkface, more (32%) think that standards are higher now than think they are lower (20%). Scotland may have changed and its weather may not always be kind, but for the vast majority of Scots their country is still a good place to be. An overwhelming 87% say that they would still opt to live in Scotland even if they were able to choose where they and their family live. Young Scots are a little more likely to say they would opt to live elsewhere - nearly one in five would leave, but rather than indicating a new generation of disenchanted Scots this figure probably reflects the fact they have had less chance to act on their preference than those in older age groups. This mood continues when it comes to more specific features of life in Scotland today. A full 58% say that Scotland is a good place to bring up children. Only 5% say that it is a bad place with the remainder saying it is neither good nor bad. Equally, two in three say that they are satisfied with their standard of living while just one in three are dissatisfied. Young Scots are the most satisfied of all with no less than three-quarters being satisfied, perhaps because for many of them the financial responsibilities of home and family have yet to make themselves felt. So, for all its reputation as a nation that specialises in self-denigration, it seems that in practice the majority of Scots enter the new Millennium relatively content with their lot. But we are not a nation without worries. A majority of Scots worry either 'a lot' or 'a little' about health, money, jobs and crime. Our biggest concern is health. Little more than one in five do not worry at all about the health of themselves and their family, while nearly twice as many worry 'a lot'. In contrast, despite the prominence it receives in the media, crime is the least of our troubles. As many as 37% do not worry about being a victim of crime while just 28% worry 'a lot'. But women worry much more about it than men with no less than 33% saying they worry 'a lot'. Economic worries meanwhile come in between. Just 32% of us do not worry about the possibility of losing our own job or of someone else in the family doing so. And just 30% do not worry at all about having enough money to pay the bills. Intriguingly, despite their high level of satisfaction with their standard of living, it is young Scots who are most likely to be worried about money, with 46% worrying a lot, more than twice the proportion who do so among the over-65s. So Scotland enters the new Millennium satisfied but not over-confident. On some issues Scots embrace change more readily than their leaders. On others it is more resistant than some of them would like. Whatever the new Millennium brings, one thing for sure is that devolution does not mean it has become an easy place to govern. - --- MAP posted-by: Eric Ernst
After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.
|
This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!