The answers to the prompt "In hindsight, thinking about the government's handling of the Covid-19 outbreak, do you think their approach was generally…," published on Friday, also accounted for the 10 percent of adults who said they "don't know."
When broken down by political affiliation, just 14 percent of Labour voters thought the lockdowns were too strict, compared to 25 percent of Conservative voters. A whopping 54 percent of Labour voters thought the policies weren't strict enough, joined by 20 percent of Conservatives. Overall, Conservatives were more satisfied with the rules, with half of them saying they were "about right," compared to only 23 percent of Labour supporters.
Liberal Democrats, the third-largest political party in the UK, also largely found that the Covid-era rules weren't "strict enough" in hindsight, with only 15 percent saying they were "too strict" compared to 44 percent who would've liked to see stronger lockdown policies. 30 percent of Liberal Democrats were satisfied with the rules, and 11 percent answered that they "don't know," the largest portion of any faction to not give an answer.
The stance on Covid practices also split down the Brexit ideological line, with 43 percent of "remainers" agreeing that they weren't strict enough compared to just 28 percent of "leavers."
Notably, British senior citizens — who are in the age group most vulnerable to Covid — answered that the lockdowns were "too strict" more than young people did. According to the poll, a 51 percent chunk of respondents aged 18-24 answered that the policies weren't strict enough, with only 33 percent of those 65 and older in agreement. In fact, seniors were mostly in line with the average findings of the results, with 44 percent saying they were "about right" and 18 percent saying they were "too strict."
The results, gathered from 3,181 individuals surveyed, garnered a mixture of reactions on social media, with some Twitter users expressing their doubts on its legitimacy and criticizing the answers.
"The government banned most people from going to work, tightly restricted our right to leave our homes, and made it illegal to hold dying family members hands, but somehow more than one in three of my fellow countrymen thinks they weren't 'strict' enough," said one commenter.
"So let me get this straight labour supporters wanted more restrictions from conservative government that they hate?," posed another commenter.
"They literally banned sitting on a park bench. 'Not strict enough,'" wrote Oliver Smith of The Telegraph.
