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A new 91Èȱ¬ World Service poll today reveals that six in 10 (60%) people in Britain favour "taking steps to reduce the government's budget deficit and debt".

However, when it comes to cutting spending on some of the largest government programs there is overwhelming opposition – 82% oppose cutting spending on education and healthcare, 80% oppose cutting spending on support for senior citizens and 66% oppose cuts to spending on the military.

Despite this apparent contradiction between public support for reducing the deficit, but strong opposition to cuts in specific programmes, many doubt that government currently spends tax money wisely.

When asked what portion of their taxes they believe are used in ways that do not serve the "interests and values of British people", people estimate on average that 46p in each pound is used in ways that are not in the common interest.

In comparison to the strong opposition to cuts to key services, opposition to increasing taxes is more modest with 52% wanting no increase and 44% prepared to accept an increase.

Other findings from the survey suggest that the number of people in favour of giving financial support to troubled banks has waned since last year.

While 55% supported it in 2009 and 42% opposed it, support has now dropped to 37%, with 61% opposed.

There is slim majority support for significant government stimulus spending, but support for this has fallen from 60% to 54% over the past year.

The telephone survey of 1,000 UK adults was conducted for the 91Èȱ¬ between 28 June and 5 July 2010 by the international polling firm GlobeScan, together with the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland.

Full sample results are considered accurate within +/- 3.1% 19 times out of 20. Some questions were asked to a half sample.

The UK poll is part of a 26-country global study, to be released later this month, looking at how attitudes towards budget deficits compare across the world.

Steven Kull, Director of PIPA comments: "Although Britons generally accept the idea of debt-reduction, the coalition faces the problem of a lack of confidence in Westminster. As long as citizens think large amounts of public money are being spent in ways that do not serve the public interest, they are going to resist both increasing taxes and cuts to specific programs they do think serve them."

GlobeScan Research Director Sam Mountford comments: "The recent controversy over UK bank bail-outs and MP expenses are likely to have contributed to this trust gap over the use of public money. Sixty-one per cent of the UK public are now opposed to bailing out banks any further."

Notes to Editors

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