Sep 22, 2024 | Stories
The 1980s in Britain was the decade of big privatisations. The Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, wanted to create a class of share-owning members of the public – her 1985 Conservative party conference speech imagined a society “where owning shares is as common as...
Jul 25, 2024 | Stories
When Emmanuel Macron announced the snap election back in June, IOC President Thomas Bach and Paris 2024 organisers said that political upheaval in France won’t affect the Olympics. This seems unlikely; even before the French election was announced, world...
Jun 11, 2024 | Stories
Vinyl is cool again. Long-playing records, or LPs, have become a measure of the British economy’s health. In March 2024 the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced that vinyl would again become one of the 700+ items used in its calculation of inflation. Vinyl...
May 9, 2024 | Stories
There is a massive number of old survey results from the last 50+ years which are included and easily accessible in the Archive of Market and Social Research. Above all, these serve to show how much we have changed as a people in that time: highlighting a few...
Feb 23, 2024 | Stories
In the late fifties ICI was Britain’s only truly global conglomerate and in its Paints Division there was already a free-standing market research company, called Household Product Research Ltd. As management trainees there, four new graduates were put through the mill...
Jan 16, 2024 | Stories
With a general election likely to take place in 2024 it is worth looking back at lessons to be learned from the past. The value of the Archive of Market and Social Research lies in its providing us with the longer-term view, and in particular it is exactly 50 years...
