What do you think of it so far?

Stay at home was an easy message to understand.

But as the Government moves towards ending the lockdown, it’s a bit more complicated. Sometimes it seems that the rules (or sometimes advice) are changed every day.

As I understand it, people can now travel any distance to visit a beach, as long as they don’t leave England, and don’t actually go on the beach if too many other people got there first. And if that causes problems it’s the fault of the people, not the politicians.

So how are they doing?

Boris Johnson now has a negative popularity rating. 39% have a positive view of him, and 43% a negative view. Labour Leader Sir Kier Starmer also has a negative rating, but having only been elected leader during lockdown, most people say that they don’t know about him. 48% disapprove of Government policy overall, while 32% approve.

When asked (by YouGov) specifically about how the Government has handled the COVID19 issue 43% answered “very well” or “somewhat well”. That’s slightly higher than the 39% on 5th June, but much lower than the 72% high point on 27th March.

There are some comparable results from other countries (although not from the USA, New Zealand or Ireland). Vietnam (97%) and Malaysia (95%) handled the issue best according to surveys, while Mexico (37%) had the lowest rating. In Europe the Scandanavian countries (except Sweden) responses showed the highest levels of support for Government handling of the issue. France (41%) and Poland (38%) fared  worse that Britain. The German (70%), Italian (65%) and Spanish (50%) Governments policies on coronavirus were more popular than our own.

YouGov surveys show that support for home working is high at 74% and for quarantining people who have been in contact with an infected person (68%), but much lower for quarantining areas that an infected person has been in (26%).

Some measures are losing popular support. For example cancelling large events was supported by 88% on 3r April, but only by 69% now.

I think that it’s true that some people (possibly a minority) are disregarding the rules. But many more are unsure of what the rules actually are.