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The UK is going to hell in a handcart says new Saatchi research – but didn’t we kind of know that already?

Saatchi and Saatchi has unveiled what it calls “new state of the nation research,” catchily titled “What the fuck is going on?” – a touch attention-seeking you might find.

Working with Meet The 85% and YouGov the research is authored by Saatchi CSO Richard Huntingdon.

So what is going on in the rather embattled United Kingdom?

Well of YouGov’s 1999 respondents 64% say they are less proud of the UK than they were five years ago, while nearly three quarters (73%) say we are more divided now than we were a decade ago. 68% of Brits think the UK is generally in decline.

When asked about their standard of living and how it has changed, 56% said it is actively worsening, while almost half (47%) of respondents say they feel less in control of their financial lives than they did five years ago. 64% say they are less proud of the UK than they were five years ago.

Which isn’t really a great surprise with a rampaging cost of living crisis and a succession of febrile Tory governments that don’t seem able to run themselves, let alone the country. The current Rishi Sunak/Jeremy Hunt lot at least seem to know what they’re doing although not many people feel markedly better off for their efforts. Half the country seems to be on strike.

Saatchi claims its research takes a deeper dive into what people really think than the norm. The report features accounts from 13 members of the public and commentators Nick Ferrari (from LBC) and Jack Monroe, a food writer.

CSO Huntington says: “Whatever your position, the royal coronation (of Charles 111) is a significant cultural moment, and one that the majority of our nation has not experienced in its lifetime. It was always going to kick off a conversation around how this country runs, but we wanted to go beyond the predictable headlines and find out how people actually feel about the UK.

“The findings of our research and conversations with real people and well-known commentators speak for themselves – there’s divide, fractures and deeply concerning realities. For us as an advertising agency, we have a responsibility to our clients and consumers to truly understand how people are feeling, but we hope that this research can do more than inform our work – it’s a cry for help by much greater powers than us.”

The full report is available at [email protected].

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