Support for the Monarchy in the UK 1: Ending Sep 2022

[Iluvbertie]

Do we have any information on the background of these 6000 people and the questions they were asked?

That information is also important to judge the accuracy of polls - which have been notoriously wrong in the UK over the past decade or so on many issues e.g. the referendum and the elections (including the YouGov polls on those issues).

 

[Lilyflo]

What is the source, what was the polling method, how big and varied was the polling audience? The assumed "popularity" of the Sussexes is in contradiction to the daily vitriol I see about the couple.

The American Bill Gates, often filed under the obscenely rich and the American Barack Obama in the top 10, but the absence of British persons as Gareth Southgate (the well-liked succesful coach of the English national football team) or the immensely popular David Attenborough, makes me suspicious about this poll.

Despite the misleading name YouGov, it is a purely commercial polling company which sells polls about everything anyone is willing to pay for. In another poll of the very same YouGov the Queen is only 24th (!).

Link: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/enterta...avid-attenborough-most-popular-person-britain

With the ratings options, you can select the category of people so that's why you can get different people at the top depending on which category you go for. However, the ratings for each person remains the same regardless of which category they've put them in.

For example, Attenburgh has a rating of 87% positive & only 3% negative versus the Queen at 72% positive & 10% negative so Attenburgh will always rank above her in any list that they're both included in.

Attenburgh comes top in the entertainment category but the Queen isn't in that list. She's in the public figure list but he isn't (I don't know why not).

There's nothing to stop journalists (or anybody) compiling their own popularity lists from the YouGov data, providing they use the actual ratings for each person.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

[.....]

Attenburgh comes top in the entertainment category but the Queen isn't in that list. She's in the public figure list but he isn't (I don't know why not).

[....] .

That is exactly the illustration that anyone can shop freely in these polls.
Attenborough is #1 overall.

But hey, let us file him under celebrity (????) and not as a public person (????), an eminent scientist and world-wide advocate for nature conservation. Let us include Obama and Gates as public person but again not Attenborough. Quod erat demonstrandum: YouGov says "You pay, we make. Anything is possible."

It is the same as filing Melania, Amal and Merkel in the top 3 as most powerful women in the world. But of course not the female CEO of the world's biggest telecom giant Huawei. Who has ever heard about her? Pfff. But if you pay, no problem, YouGov will create a nice clickbait poll result for you.

 

[Lilyflo]

That is exactly the illustration that anyone can shop freely in these polls.
Attenborough is #1 overall.
But hey, let us file him under celebrity (????) and not as a public person.
Let us include Obama and Gates as public person but not Attenborough.
Quod erat demonstrandum: YouGov says "You pay, we make. Anything is possible."

Well obviously you can rank people according to category & define your own categories. The ratings aren't secret & you don't have to pay to see them - they're there to see for anyone so I don't know what your problem with it is.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

Well obviously you can rank people according to category & define your own categories. The ratings aren't secret & you don't have to pay to see them - they're there to see for anyone so I don't know what your problem with it is.

It is the framing. Not saying that 23 public persons are more popular than the Queen.
No, let us filter it out. Wow hey... what an approval rating, the Queen has!

It is the same as Perrier ordering a poll about most liked drinks. Coca-Cola, Heineken, Pepsi, topping the polls???? Mais non ! Tweak the poll: exclude sugary drinks and beer. Et alors, voilà ! Perrier is #1 as most liked refresher! That frame hangs in the media. But it is not the truth. It is a tweaked and partial truth.

But Perrier got what it wanted. As a statistician by profession I can reveal: any outcome is possible. I can talk bananas straight with an Excel sheet.

 

[An Ard Ri]

Surprised to see Zara Philips poll so high seeing as she doesn't perform any royal duties.

 

[Lilyflo]

Surprised to see Zara Philips poll so high seeing as she doesn't perform any royal duties.

It might be because she has quite a lot of media coverage due to her sporting career & sponsorships. She has some celebrity status unlike lesser known royals eg Sophie.

 

[An Ard Ri]

It might be because she has quite a lot of media coverage due to her sporting career & sponsorships. She has some celebrity status unlike lesser known royals eg Sophie.

Yes I was thinking about that afterwards still quite a decent score for Zara.

 

[tommy100]

I think with Zara as she has no public duties and no HRH she is perceived as not costing the public anything so that means people are less likely to dislike her. She is seen as a sportswoman more than a member of the RF.

 

[Denville]

Zara works hard and is a pleasant person, who does not ned to rely on "Royal status".. and who clearly wants to get on with her life, which involves running her business and horsey interests... I would admire that..

 

[Madame Verseau]

Nice to see Meghan ranking in the top 10 in the polls. It shows the hit pieces from the tabloids, royal reporters, TV presenters and her family aren't working. If they did Meghan should be in the 20 percent range.

 

[Denville]

I think with Zara as she has no public duties and no HRH she is perceived as not costing the public anything so that means people are less likely to dislike her. She is seen as a sportswoman more than a member of the RF.

She is a sportswoman and a businesswoman. OK she has had a bit of a push from her being the queen's grand daughter but I don't think she's over used that. So I think people admire her for doing something of her own, rather than dabbling in "ordinary" jobs like some royals.. or just doing the "royal rota" duties like others. She has something she's passionate about, she makes a living at it.. and she doesn't cost the tax payer anything...

 

[Erin9]

Support for the Monarchy in the UK

Intresting. Harry has surprisingly high rank there.

It doesn’t surprise me. Between his outgoing and charming personality, charitable activities- and clear passionate interest in those charities, recent marriage and baby on the way....it doesn’t surprise me at all.

 

[Erin9]

Support for the Monarchy in the UK

Nice to see Meghan ranking in the top 10 in the polls. It shows the hit pieces from the tabloids, royal reporters, TV presenters and her family aren't working. If they did Meghan should be in the 20 percent range.

It is nice. And that doesn’t surprise me either.

She comes across as compassionate, hard working, interested in making a real difference in people’s lives, intelligent, articulate and someone who has made Harry very happy (and vice versa). Not to mention all she’s put up with from her family should generate some sympathy.

I don’t take tabloid stories very seriously. I don’t expect most people do. There may be a grain of truth buried in there, but that’s about it imo.

 

[Somebody]

Nice to see Meghan ranking in the top 10 in the polls. It shows the hit pieces from the tabloids, royal reporters, TV presenters and her family aren't working. If they did Meghan should be in the 20 percent range.

Being in the news helps as well. If people hardly know you, you are not very likely to be popular. For example, while Zara might be also known as a sports personality, she is in these lists because she is the queen's granddaughter and as such people pay attention to her in ways they wouldn't do otherwise.

 

[Rudolph]

"Our sister paper, the Sunday Express, reports today on the results of Opinium Research’s latest poll on British people’s attitude towards members of the Royal Family. It makes for interesting reading."

"Just 39 per cent of the British public have a positive view of the Duchess of Sussex. In contrast, 62 per cent have a positive view of the Duchess of Cambridge, Opinium’s latest poll shows."

"It shows that, although there has been huge interest in Harry and Meghan - newspapers sales and website clicks have done extraordinarily well from the birth of Archie in the past week - the Duchess of Sussex has much work to do to win over the British public."

"To put that into context, Meghan’s approval rating is still one that most British politicians would die for but it’s interesting, for me at least, that the much higher number of clicks for her than any other member of the Royal Family does not correspond to popularity in the UK."

"This is the 10th Monarchy Tracker by Opinium, which surveyed 2,003 UK adults from May 7 to 9, as Harry and Meghan were the top news story in the country. Results have been weighted to nationally representative criteria"

"There are signs of strong support for the couple: 65 per cent agree with the Sussexes’ decision to keep details of Meghan’s pregnancy and the birth out of the public eye and 77 per cent think Meghan has settled in well in her new role since joining the Royal Family."

"Meghan polled a 16 per cent approval rating when she first appeared on the Monarchy Tracker in April 2017 when she was little known. That rose to 40 per cent in May last year but in the year since her marriage that figure has dropped by 1 per cent (static really)."

"That doesn’t mean the rest are negative about her. Some 38 per cent are neither favourable nor unfavourable, perhaps reflecting that many Brits haven’t made up their minds - or are simply uninterested in the monarchy."

"Some 12 per cent of Brits have an unfavourable view of Meghan and 9 per cent very unfavourable"

"Opinium says: “The public think she has settled well but maybe the reason why she hasn't moved the dial is because she hasn't yet had time to consolidate her role and make a big impact with the different causes she supports.”

"Prince William is for the second successive year the most popular member of the Royal Family with a 73 per cent favourability rating; Harry and the Queen are just behind on 70 per cent; Charles is on 40 per cent, Camilla on 24 per cent"

"There are many different ways to spin all these figures. They might be a shock to her Twitter fans but are not as bad for Meghan as some might have thought - I’ve certainly met countless people of all ages in the past couple of months in Britain who are not keen on her"

"But I do think they demonstrate that, while the Sussexes give the monarchy something new and exciting that appeals to people previously uninterested in royalty, the couple do need to think about how they are perceived by the British public."

Via Richard Palmer Twitter

 

[jacqui24]

After all that coordinated attacks on the Duchess, she only went down by a point? Which I’m assuming is also within the margin of error?

And GMAB on impact of her projects. Meghan stacks well to any other royal spouse after a year of marriage. And really, if it’s based on that, prince Charles should rank the highest in my opinion.

 

[Rudolph]

Meghan stacks well to any other royal spouse after a year of marriage.

I know Catherine has never been lower than fourth in any opinion poll since her wedding.

 

[Ista]

If that opinion poll is accurate, then it sounds to me as though for the first year of marriage Meghan is doing pretty well. Undoubtedly she could be doing better, but 40% is really good, all things considered. I suspect that once she is back at work, barring any major missteps, that figure will likely go up.

 

[jacqui24]

I know Catherine has never been lower than fourth in any opinion poll since her wedding.

There are only so many royals polled on. And I don’t know if I believe that, most polls I’ve seen have her below Queen and Princes William and Harry. Which would put her in the fourth if they no longer polled on Duke of Edinburgh. Don’t know if I believe she always polled higher than Prince Philip before his retirement.

 

[Lilyflo]

So Meghan is polling about the same as Prince Charles & 15 points above Camilla - not bad going in a year, considering the buckets of bile that have been written about her.

 

[Nico]

Well polls are always a bit irrelevant concerning a Monarchy don't they ? Popular or not, the members of the BRF are here and the British public has to basically deal with it.

Meghan could be the most or least popular member of the BRF, at the end it really doesn't matter : she will aways be, for life, the Duchess of Sussex.

 

[Curryong]

So only 12% have an unfavourable view of Meghan, and 9% very unfavourable. After the months of nasty and vindictive articles, I think that's good. And in the next twelve months after her maternity leave Meghan can show her work ethic and commitment to causes. Quite frankly, after the bad press she's got from the tabloids for two years I wouldn't have been surprised at 10% approval! All Meghan needs is to be given half a chance.

Of course we had to have some personal snark about those figures for Meghan from Richard Palmer!

 

[jacqui24]

Btw, there was a YouGov poll done recently that contradicts this poll. I’ll post it later when I have time to find it.

 

[Elenath]

https://yougov.co.uk/ratings/politics/popularity/royalty/all

Here she’s at nr. 6

 

[Moonmaiden23]

She has not even quite reached her first wedding anniversary yet!

The interest in her and her husband probably exceeds that of any other member of the BRF and the pressure must be intense.

All things considered, she is doing very well imho.

 

[Marlo]

The polls mean absolutely nothing.

 

[Blog Real]

I also think it's a good result for Meghan. He's only been in the Royal Family for a year now and he's done a good job.

 

[Mbruno]

So Meghan is polling about the same as Prince Charles & 15 points above Camilla - not bad going in a year, considering the buckets of bile that have been written about her.

If anything, what that poll shows is that Camilla remains the least popular of the senior royals (the core RF consisting of the Queen, the PoW, and the PoW's family). The prediction that the public would gradually warm up to Camilla has not materialized either. Twenty-four percent is a low approval rating, even for politicians.

Well polls are always a bit irrelevant concerning a Monarchy don't they ? Popular or not, the members of the BRF are here and the British public has to basically deal with it.

Meghan could be the most or least popular member of the BRF, at the end it really doesn't matter : she will aways be, for life, the Duchess of Sussex.

Sarah didn't remain the Duchess of York for life and Diana of course was no longer the Princess of Wales when she died. I hope Meghan remains the Duchess of Sussex for life, but that is not 100 % guaranteed for someone who doesn't hold the title in her own right.

 

[Rudolph]

For people interested Yougov’s latest ‘most popular royals in the U.K.’ survey.

There’s many different breakdowns. Click on the tab to filter results.

YouGov