Tag Archives: royals

Celebrities don’t cut it with children.

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In a world seemingly obsessed with celebrity, it is heartening to know that celebrities don’t cut it with children.

Celebrities aren’t that important to children after all according to research out today, despite the panic over the burgeoning celebrity culture.

When school children were asked to pick the most important people in Britain, celebrities ranked significantly lower than royals and politicians, with showbiz mogul Simon Cowell getting less than half as many votes as David Cameron (20 per cent versus 45 per cent).

The research among 650 UK school children, conducted for Galt Toys by leading child research experts ChildWise, showed Ant and Dec were important to only 21 percent of children and chart topper Harry Styles just 13 per cent. Daniel Radcliffe has lost his magic, only receiving 8 per cent of votes.

It isn’t great news for David Beckham either who ranked lower than Boris Johnson with 13 per cent of the votes versus 14 per cent. Cheryl Cole was important to just 11 per cent of children.

Brit winner Adele gets just 6 per cent of votes and Victoria Beckham trails in last with only 4 per cent.

John McDonnell, Managing Director of Galt Toys commented: “Children aren’t as frivolous as adults fear them to be. Our findings show it’s good news for the Royals in Jubilee year with the Queen topping the importance poll by a significant margin (91 per cent) and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in second and third place.”

The Royal family can’t rest on its laurels though as second in line to the throne Prince Charles lagged behind Prince William and the Prime Minister, coming in fifth place. Prince William got more than double the number of votes as his father (53 per cent versus 25 per cent).

Which of these British people do you think is most important?

Britons are prouder of their history, NHS and army than of the Royals.

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While 2012 celebrates the Diamond Jubilee and London hosting the Olympics, it is history that makes people most proud to be British.

A survey commissioned by Channel 4 from Ipsos MORI found that more people (45%) are proud to be British due to the country’s history than they are because of the Royal Family (28%). And more people cite the NHS (37%) and the armed forces (36%) as a source of pride than they do the Royals. British sports teams come in at a lowly 10%. Bringing up the bottom of the table is British business, with only 4%.

Overall, which two or three of the following, would you say makes you most proud to be British?

1. Our history (45%)

2. The NHS (37%)

3. British Army / armed forces (36%)

4. The Royal Family (28%)

5. Our culture and arts (24%)

6. Our system of democracy (22%)

7. Having a free press / media (15%)

8. British sports teams (10%)

9. Our position in the world (5%)

10. British business (4%)

Timed to coincide with, Make Bradford British, a documentary series exploring what it means to be British, the survey also found that a ‘good sense of humour’ (45%) topped the poll when people were asked what are the best characteristics of British people, followed by friendly (34%) and tolerant to all sections of society (30%).

But while being funny may be the best British characteristic, of those surveyed, half (50%) said the worst was drinking too much. Ignorance of other cultures (33%) and complaining too much (23%) were also cited. And a fifth of respondents thought the worst characteristic was being lazy (20%).

Tea topped the poll not only as people’s favourite drink (38%) but also what they thought was the country’s national drink (65%) proving that we are a nation of tea lovers.

While fish and chips is seen as the national dish by four in ten Britons (41%) just one in ten (9%) say it is their favourite food. Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding tops the poll as the nation’s favourite dish (33%).

And while 15% enjoy a curry as their meal of choice, only 8% think it’s the national dish.

Make Bradford British continues on Thursday 8 March at 9pm on Channel 4