Polling on the Junior Doctors Strike

Support or opposition to strike action is often largely influenced by people's attitudes to the people going on strike and the inconvenience it causes them. If it's a profession that people admire and think is generally hard done by they'll sympathise, if it's a profession that people don't think much of they won't. If the inconvenience it causes people is relatively minor, people will understand; if it really puts out large numbers of people, like school or tube closures, then sympathy is less forthcoming. The specific ins-and-outs of the dispute are often impenetrable or irrelevant. It's who we trust, who is the good guy.

The public hold doctors in extremely high regard and unless they happen to have had a hospital appointment today it's unlikely to cause most people any direct noticable inconvenience, so you'd expect fairly high support. That's what the polls show. Ipsos MORI had a new poll for yesterday's Newsnight which found the public supported strike action emphatically (66% to 16%) when junior doctors would still provide emergency care, and much more narrowly (44% to 39%) if junior doctors would not provide emergency care either. Full tabs are here.

Late last year before the intitial round of strikes were postponed YouGov found a similar pattern - people clearly supported strike action by 51% to 32% when junior doctors would still cover emergency treatment, when strike action would also cover emergency care people were more evenly divided (45% to 37%). Tabs are here.

At present this breaks the way you would expect in an argument between politicians on one side, and trustworthy and overworked people who come to your rescue when you're ill on the other. If strike action that also involves emergency care goes ahead though public opinion may become more finely balanced.