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We’ve nearly made it. The end of 2020 is just a few weeks away and a vaccine is on the horizon – it would appear that the end of the pandemic is getting closer. At least that’s what we’re all hoping for once we get this bleak looking winter out of the way.

I thought it would be an appropriate time to reflect on the views of our Viewsbank members, and how they may or may not have changed over the last few months as the situation has developed.

As you’re likely aware, we have been running some Covid-19 related questions in our weekly Omnibus throughout the course of the year, in order to gain an understanding of certain aspects of 2020 life, including how the government has handled events so far, and the level of concern among our members.

There have been lots of ups and downs throughout the course of the year – mostly downs unfortunately – although things did appear to take a turn for the better in early summer, when the first lockdown was gradually eased and cases of Covid-19 appeared to be falling. I think of the all the “buzzwords” we’ve seen throughout the year so far, the one that most sums it up for me is probably uncertainty. That word has been bounced around quite a bit and it would appear with good reason.

If you can remember back to the early part of the year when this all began and the first lockdown was looming, absolutely nobody appeared to have any idea what was going on. Initially it was thought there would be disruption for around 3 months, which seems completely laughable now after what we’ve all been through. We then had Boris telling us that he hoped for “significant normality by Christmas” and now we’re being told that “significant normality” is more likely to be around Easter time. Combine that with everything that has been cancelled this year (and next) and that word “uncertainty” seems to ring more and more true.

Let’s look back then at some of stats from our Omnibus surveys over the last few months. I’m comparing the number from three different surveys; one in early May, during the first lockdown, one from July as restrictions were easing and also the most recent one from last week. For reference, our Omnibus surveys a nationally representative sample of approximately 1,000 people.

One of the first questions we ask in our Covid section of the Omnibus is how concerned our members are about the pandemic. We saw that back in April some 82% of you were either concerned or very concerned about the pandemic. There were a lot of unknowns back then, and indeed unbeknown to us we were still very much in the early days, and so a high level of concern makes total sense. Compare that to 77% (July) and 76% (November), and you can see that while concern has dropped a little amongst our members, it’s still at a fairly high level despite a vaccine apparently being around the corner. The slight drop off could come from perhaps those who at least feel they know what to expect with the pandemic having gone on as long as it has.

Another interesting question to look at is around the Government’s response to the pandemic – specifically regarding how the Government has dealt with the UK outbreak. We asked you to rank the Government on this from “Not impressed at all” (1), to “Very impressed” (5). The average score back in May was 3.3, so the majority of people thinking the Government had done an OK job up to that point – perhaps not a brilliant one compared with the likes of New Zealand, but also not too terrible. Fast forward a few months and the average score dips to 2.6 (July) and then 2.4 (November), so much closer to “Unimpressed”. While the Government’s score hasn’t exactly fallen off a cliff then, it certainly appears to be heading in the wrong direction as time passes, with more and more of our members feeling dissatisfied with the way things are being handled.

One thing that is more certain though, is that we’ll continue to monitor the situation through our Omnibus surveys as the pandemic develops and (hopefully) draws to a close next year.

In the meantime, we’d love to hear more from you and specifically your thoughts on how concerned you are about the pandemic, the Government’s response and how your opinion has changed throughout the course of the year. Let us know in the comments below – we can’t wait to hear from you!

I don’t need to sit here and tell you about how your summer holiday plans have been disrupted this year. Even if your travel plans haven’t been personally affected by the Covid-19 outbreak you’ll likely know someone who has been in that position.

It goes without saying that the damage to the travel industry has been huge – it has been one of the worst effected sectors after all. Thousands of job losses have already been announced, with many more likely to follow once the furlough scheme ends in October. This morning, the CEO of British Airway’s parent company IAG claimed that this current crisis is the worst in its history.

With all of this in mind, we thought it would be interesting to gather our Viewsbanker’s thoughts on travel, to find out not only whether your plans have been thrown into chaos, but also to understand your appetite for travel, and how this has changed with the ongoing pandemic.

In a recent Omnibus survey of 1,019 nationally representative adults, it will likely come as no surprise to you that UK destinations are proving a more tantalising prospect than their foreign counterparts, at least for the time being, with 34% of respondents indicating that they either already have a domestic trip booked, or intend to book one as soon as possible. Compare that with just 21% who have a trip abroad booked or intend to book one as soon as possible. The other point to consider here is that this survey was run before the Government’s recent announcement to remove Spain from the list of countries that do not require travellers to quarantine upon return to the UK.

The Government’s recent U-turn on Spain (and now Luxembourg) due to rising cases of Covid-19 there, will also have likely added a further dose of uncertainty to the minds of would be travellers. We’ll be re-running a section of this survey in the coming week to see if our suspicions are correct in that confidence in travel abroad will decrease further inline with the Government’s decision. In my opinion it certainly feels like you can’t take anything for granted right now.

What do you think? How do you feel about the prospect of travelling abroad in the near future? Let us know in the comments – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Unless you've been living under a very large rock, you'll surely be aware of the massive growth in subscription based services over the last few years. You probably even subscribe to one or more yourself. In fact, you told us that you do - last week's Omnibus survey asked a set of questions around subscription based services, and out 1,011 natonally representative responses, over half of you (52%) subscribe to Netflix, while just 18% don't use any on demand/subscription based services - and that's just for TV!

What we really want to know though, is are people getting fed up of subscription based services? It's easy to think about the big well known services, particularly for TV and Music (Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime etc.) but the rise in subscription based services has also seen a huge surge in other products available by subscription, as companies rush to jump on the bandwagon and part you from your hard earned cash each month and indeed for the foreseeable future, unless cancelled of course and usually after a free trial. A quick internet search or a trawl through any social media platform and you'll likely be offered subscription based services for all kinds of things from shaving products to beer, coffee to socks - you really can subscribe to seemingly anything these days. It's a great business model after all - get you in with a cheap or free introductory offer, and then hopefully retain your custom for many months or even years to come, providing the company in question with a healthy regular income.

It may seem like a good idea at the time of the free trial or introductory offer, and of course if you do use and enjoy the product regularly then subcriptions often offer excellent value. However, many people find that they end up with multiple subscriptions that they may not fully utilise, while the money just keeps coming out of their account month after month while they forget to cancel it.

As part of our Omnibus this week, we thought we'd find out if there is still an appetite out there for additional subscriptions, or whether companies are now starting to take things too far. Across a range of product categories, we asked members whether they currently had a subscription, might consider one, or would never consider one for the product type in question. While some of the results were not suprising (music subscriptions were the most popular), it was interesting to see that, for example, both Beauty Boxes and Shaving products had a high proportion of members who told us they would never consider taking subscription for them. Hard to believe condsidering the number of these subscripton boxes already avalable on the market.

What do you think about subscription services? How many do you have and are you getting fed up of them? Or, do you prefer the flexibility subscription services offer? Let us know in the comments! Results table from this part of the survey available below.

Rewind a few years and if you wanted to book yourself a package holiday, chances are you wouldn’t think twice about visiting your local travel agent in order to book your trip. Fast forward to today however, and it’s a different story, with various online comparison sites and market disrupting tech firms like Airbnb all fighting for your cash when it comes to holiday booking time. Is there still room for traditional travel agents such as Thomas Cook and Tui in this modern age, or are they on the way out?

You’ll likely have seen the news over the last week or so that Thomas Cook has unfortunately revealed fresh financial woes, announcing a staggering £1.5 billion six months loss, and issuing its third profit warning in less than a year. The company is citing Brexit uncertainty as the primary reason for customers making fewer bookings this year, but is it all too easy to blame Brexit for something that has been a long time coming?

We thought we’d do a bit of digging and try and find out a bit more by looking at the thoughts of our Viewsbank members in last week’s Omnibus survey. Surely that could help us get to the bottom of it?

To set the scene, we asked our 1,019 respondents whether they had taken a holiday abroad in the last 5 years, with 69% (707) saying that they had. With that in mind we wanted to see how many people were likely to be going on holiday abroad this year, to see whether or not Brexit was having a significant impact on bookings. Interestingly, 67% (680) told us that, yes they had already booked or were likely to book, or they were “maybe” considering it. Not exactly a significant drop off from those who had been on holiday abroad in the last five years.

The 33% (339) who said no, were also asked why they were not planning on taking a holiday abroad this year, with just 5% (16) of those respondents stating that they were concerned about the impact of Brexit – not exactly inline with what Thomas Cook is reporting. The majority of respondents (51%, 173) simply told us that they couldn’t afford it this year, with a further 16% (53) saying they weren’t interested, and 15% (51) saying they were too busy this year.

Digging a little deeper we asked everyone who had already booked, or were likely to book a holiday abroad this year, how likely they were to use a travel agent such as Thomas Cook. Just 7% (45) of respondents reported having already booked their holiday this way. However, things are looking a little better here for travel agents here with 37% (251) respondents stating they were either likely or very likely to use a travel agent, with a further 18% (121) not sure. The remaining 39% (263) told us that they were either unlikely or very unlikely to use a travel agent.

We also wanted to know why these respondents were unlikely to use a travel agent – 51% (134) told us that they thought travel agents were too expensive, while 38% (99) said they were outdated and 32% (83) thought they were not convenient enough. Interestingly, 18% (47) said they would not book with a travel agent specifically due to being worried about the travel agent going into administration. We followed that up by asking if the recent £1.5bn loss announcement would put respondents off booking, and on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being completely put off, and 1 being not put off at all, 31% (218) of the 707 respondents who answered that question scored either a 4 or 5 here, so clearly announcements like this aren’t going to help matters.

What do you think? Do you think travel agents like Thomas Cook will be able to adapt for the future, or are they on the way out? Do you think companies have been quick to blame Brexit for other deeper issues, or do you think that it’s fair for Brexit to shoulder the blame? Let us know in the comments – we look forward to hearing what you think!

Measles and the MMR vaccine are big news at the moment – in fact it feels like the story has been getting even more news coverage than Brexit over the last couple of weeks, and with good reason. The latest outbreak is reportedly a 25 year high for the disease in the US, with France and the UK also ranking alongside the US as high income countries with some of the largest numbers of children missing their MMR vaccinations.

So why is this happening? The UK was actually granted measles elimination status by the World Health Organisation in 2017 after all – it seems crazy to think it could all go so wrong so quickly. Governments and news outlets around the world have been taking aim at the growing “anti-vaxxer” movement that appears to be gaining traction recently, well apart from perhaps President Trump and his super helpful thoughts on linking the MMR vaccine with Autism that he’s thankfully since retracted. He’s now calling on all Americans to “get their shots” in case you missed that one.

Many people will remember that the MMR vaccine was controversially linked to autism back in the 90s by former British doctor Andrew Wakefield who published a fraudulent research paper linking the two. It was later discovered that Wakefield had been paid by attorneys of parents who were suing the vaccine manufacturers and that his data was fraudulent. He was eventually struck off by the General Medical Council after being found guilty of professional misconduct. None of this mattered though – the anti-vaxxer community were quick to latch on this “research”, finally claiming to have the proof they needed, and it’s something that has taken time to fade from people’s minds.

However, now some of these theories appear to be making a comeback, with the latest figures suggesting that more than half a million children in the UK missed their first dose of MMR between 2010 and 2017, just behind France at 608,000, and the US with a staggering 2.6 million. Many have been quick to point the finger at social media and the fake news epidemic that we’ve been hearing about over the past couple of years or so, but how true is it? We thought we’d run a few questions past our members in last week’s Omnibus survey to find out about their experiences.

To set the scene and gather our member’s thoughts on vaccinations in general, we asked on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being “I do not believe that children should be vaccinated at all” and 5 being “Vaccinations for children in the UK should be compulsory”, what our members thought. Encouragingly, 81% of 1,059 nationally representative respondents put either a 4 or a 5, with the majority of those answering with 5. Just 6% put their answer as either a 1 or a 2, with the remaining 13% sitting on the fence and believing that it should be up to the parents as to whether they vaccinate their children.

The big question came at the end – we wanted to know whether our members had seen or heard any advice or information from so called anti-vaxxers in the last few months and the results were interesting. While we found that 27% had never seen or heard of this type of content before, and a further 27% had heard of this type of content but hadn’t seen it personally, a fairly high 25% had seen anti-vaxxer content on social media in the last few months. Furthermore, 21% of respondents reported seeing this type of content online and 14% have either heard or had a conversation with someone about it. Staggeringly, the most dedicated anti-vaxxers out there appear to be so determined to spread their message that they’re going door to door – with 5% of respondents reporting that they’ve received this type of content through their door, and while thankfully a fairly low number, a still worrying 6% of respondents reported sharing anti-vaxxer content themselves in the last few months.

While it’s clear then that anti-vaxxer content is not finding its way to everyone, it’s still quite concerning that so many of our respondents have been exposed to this type of content in some way in the last few months, and our research does seem to suggest that while social media isn’t the only culprit here, it certainly appears to be the place where you’re most likely to run into this content.

What do you think about the current measles outbreak? Do you think social media is to blame? Let us know in the comments – we look forward to reading them.

The gaming industry is booming. In fact, video games are now so popular that globally the market was worth around $135 billion (£102 billion) in 2018. Google is well aware of this and wants a piece of the action.

In fact, Google already has a piece of the action - it has YouTube which is incredibly successfull as a place for gamers to show of their skills, as well as somwhere to watch guides, walk throughs, reviews and so on. Google also has the Android gaming platform, with plenty of games being downloaded from the Play Store each day. Sounds like a good business model already doesn't it? Google however clearly wants an even bigger share in this multi-billion dollar industry, as just last week it has announced a new gaming platform - Google Stadia.

What is Google Stadia?

Google Stadia is Google's brand new gaming platform, that they're hoping will compete with rivals such as Sony's Playstation and Microsoft's Xbox, and even the PC gaming market. It differs from a traditional gaming console in that while the control pad looks pretty "normal", you do not need to purchase an expensive console to play the latest games. In fact, Stadia will work with many existing desktop computers and laptops, TVs, phones and even certain models of the company's popular Chromecast streaming device. This is all possible because the games do not run in your own home or on your own device as they would traditionally, but elsewhere, on Google's own high end hardware that it will update regularly. The picture you see on your TV or other device is nothing more than a video stream of the game.

With its new platform, Google is hoping to lean on its success with YouTube that it already has among the gaming community, and during a demonstration at its announcement, the firm demonstrated how a gamer could be watching a video on YouTube before pressing a "play on Stadia" button with the title launching and becoming playable in just a few seconds.

"Hundreds of millions of people watch gaming content on YouTube every single day. Our vision is to bring those worlds closer together," said Phil Harrison, Google's new head of gaming.

While in theory Google Stadia sounds fantasic and potentially something that could mark a shift away from tradtional home consoles and PCs, this type of technology isn't without its critics, and there are still a lot of unknowns about Google's service, such as the price and available games.

Gamers and industry experts are excited to try the new platform but are urging caution when it comes to this type of technology, as similar attempts in the past have been hampered by "lag" - the game's time delay between controller input and action on the screen. This is particularly important in popular online games such as first person shooters, where even a small increase in lag can make the game very difficult to play. Google is keen to point out that it has clever algorithms and compression in place that will enable Stadia to run even on internet connections that aren't the fastest available, but in truth we'll probably know more about how well this will work once the platform has launched later this year.

There's also the issue of price and the games that will be available on the service. In terms of price, we still have no idea how much this is going to cost or even how the service will work. Will Google pitch a sort of "Netflix for games", where you'll need a monthly subscription in order to access content, or will you still need to purchase games separately? We'll have to wait and see and of course this could make a massive difference to the popularity of the service.

What do Viewsbank members think of Google Stadia?

In last week's Omnibus survey, we put a series of questions to our members relating to their gaming habits and Google Stadia in general. Of 1,047 people who took the survey 66% of those members currently play some form of video games, with 75% of those members who do playing for 2 hours or more, so just the type of people Google are going to be targeting with their new platform.

Rather surprisingly just 17% of gamers surveyed said they would either "probably" or "definitely" be interested in Stadia. However, rather more telling is that a further 49% of gamers have indicated that they are "maybe" interested in the new platform, showing that while Google clearly has something that has caught their attention, they're going to have pull out all the stops to convince them it's worth parting with their hard earned cash for. Of course, pricing could be a big determining factor, and a lot of the "maybe" people could be swayed either way once that is announced further down the line.

We then asked our members who indicated that they were either "probably" or "definitely" interested in the new service why they thought this type of platform might be better than current ways to game - here's what a few of them said:

"If they have solved the latency problem it will be much simpler to access as all processing is done in the cloud and all that is needed is a controller and internet enabled tv."

"The games would be available to play instantly with no downloads."

"What Google is trying to do is amazing, they want people to connect and interact more, this feature to the new gaming system is what get me excited for it's release. Just being able to stream and have people watching you join your game is incredible to me."

On the flipside of the argument, we also asked those who said they were either "probably not" or "definitely not" interested why this was the case:

"I prefer to play games that have been installed locally and are without the need of an internet connection to play them."

"I prefer playing games on my own computer where streaming latency isn't an issue."

"Because it's just a way to keep the money flowing and for them to spy on you even more than they already do and make more money from you. I like to pay for a product - say a console or a game, that is mine to keep, not keep on paying over and over and over again!"

What do you think of Google's new Stadia platform? Let us know in the comments below.

D I S C O, the word on everyone’s lips. Or so I thought…

It’s a Friday afternoon in the office and my brain has begun to wander to the joys of the weekend and what is has in store. Like many people, I enjoy listening to music to ‘get me in the mood’ for the weekend and what better way to kick off your Friday evening than going back to the 70’s, putting on my imaginary flares and cranking up some Sister Sledge.

Not wanting anyone else to miss out on the fun I was having, I decided to share a few songs/playlists with colleagues. It was at this point I was left speechless, when people didn’t start to share in the joy.

“Nobody likes 70’s music anymore!”

“You’re the only person who likes Disco”

“Stop sending me links to music I don’t like”

Unbeknown to me, it turns out that not everyone loves Disco music and I may be (a little) annoying… However, not one to go down without a fight I stood up for my musical tastes, exclaiming that my colleagues were still a part of the minority.

The power of ViewsBank meant that we had the perfect tool to settle this argument and to not spend all afternoon going back and forth with a team of stubborn people!

The stakes were set; for myself and the Disco lovers to come through, I needed 50% of respondents to agree with the statement “I like and listen to disco music”. Should this win, the non-disco lovers of the office would agree to listen back to back with an hour-long Disco playlist that I had crafted

However, should there be less than 50% of people agreeing with me, I would lose. Tail between my flares, fake afro removed and never to mention the topic again.

1,786 people joined the debate, I needed 893 to support me. Heartbreak for myself and the disco lovers, we fell 95 short! With only 44.7% of people agreeing with me…

Whilst this may have felt like a defeat, the spirt of disco will go on. A special mention to ‘JenX’ -  “Disco music always cheers me up and gets me motivated to do something useful” and her motivational disco. To ‘Mazbev’, who appreciates how Disco can make a bad evening a great evening “… now I’m singing and dancing on this freezing cold, Friday evening”. Lastly, to a new role model of mine, ‘Hoopy1888’ “Sitting in Gold disco pants as I write”.

The magical playlist I created was not shared around the office, however I thought this was too good to waste. So, to the 44% who already love Disco, I hope something you like made the cut, and to the 56% who were indifferent or dislike Disco, I hope that you try some of these songs and hopefully I can change your mind before a re-vote! It contains a mix of everything from the 70s to current day;

1. Diana Ross - The Boss
2. Sister Sledge - Greatest Dancer (Dimitri from Paris remix)
3. Gladys Knight & The Pips - Taste of Bitter Love
4. Loose Change - Straight From the Heart (Joey Negro remix)
5. Phylis Hyman - You Know How To Love Me
6. Sister Sledge - Lost in Music (Dimitri from Paris remix)
7. Gwen McCrae - Keep The Fire Burning
8. Shapeshifters - Try My Love on For Size
9. Aretha Franklin - Get it Right
10. Change - Glow of Love
11. Change - Angel in My Pocket
12. Lovebirds - Want You in My Soul
13. Linda Clifford - Shoot Your Best Shot

Disco Will

As you're probably aware, it's that time of year again, so we thought it would be nice to ask our members some obviously very important festive questions like what everyone's having for Christmas dinner, or about their preference for real or artificial Christmas trees... Like I said, really important stuff! Anyway, the results are in below. Any surprises? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Finally, the team at Viewsbank would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It’s that time of year again – our inboxes are filling up with emails seemingly offering us huge discounts on everything from electronics to fashion and more. In fact, while Black Friday this year is technically on this coming Friday 23^rd December, it seems like this year’s event could be the biggest one yet in the UK, with Black Friday actually feeling more like “Black Friday Week”, with shoppers being given even more chances to “grab a bargain”. Interestingly, it would seem that Black Friday may be at least partly responsible for driving a trend that’s seeing November become more and more popular for Christmas shopping in the UK. According to the BBC, November sales grew at a faster rate than December sales in 2017 for the first time.

Wait – what’s Black Friday?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, it’s unlikely that you haven’t heard of Black Friday by this point in time. In an admin poll we ran earlier this month, just 2.2% of you claimed to have never heard of it, but just in case those members are reading this, Black Friday is a tradition that originated in the US, as a heavily discounted shopping day to kick off Christmas shopping. Black Friday is always on the Friday after the American holiday of Thanksgiving, and is also followed by Cyber Monday with substantial online discounts. However, it’s not quite so clear cut these days, with many retailers merging both events into one, and even running sales events over a week or more to ease the pressure on shoppers, staff and delivery services.

If you’re interested in grabbing a bargain, it certainly sounds like a tempting time to shop. However, along with the discounts, there’s also quite a bit of negativity surrounding Black Friday in the UK too, with many labelling it as “just another tacky US import”. Furthermore, it would seem that the media aren’t doing a huge amount to improve its image, with tabloids loving nothing more than a chance to share some shaky mobile phone footage of a brawl in Asda over £99 HD TVs. I’m sure we can all agree that such behaviour is far from ideal, but thankfully it doesn’t offer a fair representation of the majority of shoppers this November.

So what do our members think?

In an admin poll that we ran a few weeks ago, we asked our members simply “Are you looking forward to Black Friday this year?”. Over 1,800 of you voted in the poll, and the results proved to be a lot closer than many of us thought. Almost 48% of you were in someway looking forward to Black Friday, whether you “love finding a bargain” in general at 32.7%, or you were looking forward to it but “only online to avoid the crowds” at 15.1%.

On the flipside we found that just over 41% of you were not looking forward to it with 30% simply saying that they were not interested and 11.2% feeling more strongly that they “can’t stand it”. We also found that 8.8% of you were sitting on the fence with “not sure” while the remaining 2.2% were unaware of what Black Friday is. See below for our full results accurate at the time of writing.

The comments also proved interesting with member “loueeze” saying “I always look out for any bargains online for the grandchildren there are usually a few good deals in the run up to black Friday, but I'm certainly not interested in queuing and fighting over things and making a fool of myself!”. Another of our members “adrian50283” added “It's a bit of a rip-off really. You can get better deals throughout the rest of the year.”

What do you think about Black Friday? Let us know in the comments!