Much speculation about who’s in #TheQueue and why, but little evidence. That is, until a doughty band of @uniessexgovt researchers began a survey (using the kinds of methods developed for studying protests). Survey ongoing but here are snippets based on the first 300 responses.
First, @ReicherStephen (theguardian.com/commentisfree/…) is right about the multiple motivations for attending. Being there at a historic moment was as important as Queen-specific motivations, and things like "feel part of a wider group" were given 6/6 importance by plenty of queuers.
And multiple things that people feel that they have lost (based on a question asking people what -- if anything -- they see themselves as honouring or mourning).
Second, the queue is more reflective of Britain than you might think. All age groups are represented, not far off their proportions, the queue is 59% female.
It’s also 60% Remain (among those who voted in 2016)! Part of that is because London is of course well represented…
…but more generally it’s more a Conservative than a conservative queue.
56% (of those who’d vote) said they would vote Conservative if there were an election tomorrow, yet the proportion supporting the death penalty is lower than in the population as a whole.
Updates to follow when we have more data and more time -- and have hopefully met David Beckham.
(Meanwhile, those interested in finding out more should feel free to DM me.)
As promised, some more data, now based on around 500 responses and this time more demographic: residence, birthplace and ethnicity.
First, where people live looks largely function of distance from Southwark Park, though note that around 4% of queuers live abroad...
...and almost 20% were born overseas.
The sample still isn’t (and may never be) large enough for us to report detailed ethnicity data with much confidence. What we can say is: i) the queue is around 85% White British; ii) among ethnic minority groups, those from Asian backgrounds well outnumber Black respondents.
On the one hand, this belies the notion that #TheQueue is uniformly white. On the other hand, ethnic minority (and Commonwealth) respondents are under-represented when you consider that Londoners make up a third of the queue.
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