The annual British Social Attitudes report always makes fascinating reading - not just because it tracks the slow but subtle shifts in Britons' lives and beliefs, but because it uncovers the faultlines between good intentions and the way we actually behave.
The 22nd Report comes out at a time when the electorate shows signs of flirting with the Conservatives again, so the findings on people's attitudes to taxation are particularly intriguing. This year, the authors have divided Britons into three broad categories - the Samaritans, the Club Members and the Robinson Crusoes.
Samaritans think the welfare state should help the needy, no matter whether they have paid taxes or are especially deserving. Half of all graduates fall into this group, who make up 30% of the population.
The largest group (45%) are Club Members, who tend to believe that it is wrong for people to benefit from services they haven't helped to pay for.
Robinson Crusoes make up the remaining quarter . They prize self-reliance and are the most likely to have no educational qualifications.
But the really interesting finding is that while less than a third of the 3,000 people sampled think that income should be redistributed from the poor to the rich, 73% believe the gap between the richest and the poorest is too large, and only 11% plump for a tax system that does not redistribute money from the poor to the rich. For most of us, "redistribution" appears to be a dirty word - even if we're prepared to do it.
The report also debunks a few truisms - for example, the notion that everyone wants to own their own home. Thirty-nine percent of those living in council housing want to stay there, even though only just over a quarter think their home is maintained properly. And the survey helps to explain why the Tories' and Lib Dems' pledges to abolish tuition fees at the last election failed to attract much support. No matter which social class they come from, 77% of the population believe all or some students should pay them.
British Social Attitudes identifies a couple of subtle shifts in attitudes to Europe over the past two decades. Nowadays, people's attitude to the EU influences their choice of political party - something the distinctly Eurosceptical David Cameron will no doubt welcome. And trade union members are less likely to be male, working class and leftwing than ever before, thanks to the decline in manufacturing and the boom in public sector jobs. Tony Blair may well have succeeded in severing the umbilical link between Labour and the unions.
