Thread on our new @IpsosMORIScot COVID-19 attitudes poll for @BBCScotland. First thing that strikes me is level of support for government setting strict rules rather than leaving it to individuals to weigh risk – full findings here https://bit.ly/3kHtvUJ  (1/8)

We also favour action on COVID rule breakers - 65% support fines for people who break coronavirus travel rules (fieldwork just before NS announced restrictions would be put into law). 48% said consequences of breaking the rules ‘not harsh enough’ (just 7% 'too harsh') (2/8)

Few people felt the restrictions in their area were too strict (19%) – most (62%) felt about right, and 17% that they were not strict enough. Half (51%) support a second national lock down (36% opposed). (Fieldwork just before announcement 11 LAs would go into level 4) (3/8)

But although prepared to weather strict restrictions for now, 56% say they support relaxing restrictions around Christmas day (32% are opposed). So seems Scotland willing to put up with tough restrictions for now, but with promise of a more normal Christmas. (4/8)

Findings also highlight that rules we’re finding most difficult are those around socialising – among those who were not finding the rules ‘very easy’, 65% said avoiding meeting in home was difficult, and 58% found avoiding meeting with more than 1 other hhold outside hard. (5/8)

Lower numbers finding restrictions/closures of pubs (19%) or restaurants (31%) difficult. But men more likely than women to find pub restrictions /closures difficult – 26% vs. 13%. (6/8)

Striking that there were few differences in attitudes to local restrictions (e.g. whether sticking to the rules, whether finding them easy or difficult to live with) between those in tiers 1 or 2 and those in tier 3 (again, fieldwork was just b4 level 4 announcements). (7/8)

Bigger differences by age – younger people more likely to say it’s difficult to live with restrictions (30% of 16-34s finding it difficult, vs. 16% of those aged 55+), and less likely to be sticking to the rules ‘all the time’. https://bit.ly/3kHtvUJ . (8/8) END THREAD