联合政府上台伊始，面对金融危机的影响和经济低迷的形势，采取了财政紧缩政策，大幅削减福利、提高高校学费上限、改革中学体制，并试图重组英国人引以为傲的国家医疗服务体系（NHS）。从改革的效果来看，前三项比较成功，而后者则遭到激烈反对，进展有限。2011年8月，英国爆发了全国性大规模骚乱，造成很大人员伤亡和财产损失。骚乱引起了全国范围的激烈辩论，而引起骚乱的深层次原因主要包括青年居高不下的失业率、少数族裔聚居区紧张的种族关系和警民矛盾、青少年家庭不健全以及帮派文化影响等。在经济复苏前景尚不明朗的悲观情绪下，2011年威廉王子的盛大婚礼和2012年女王钻禧（登基60周年）庆祝活动给英国人增加了几许亮色。
Facing the aftermath of the global financial crisis and economic stagnation，the Coalition government adopted a general social policy of austerity and reform aimed at cutting public expenditure，changing the public’s reliance on state welfare and boosting the British economy. Some of the measures have proved successful，such as the welfare cut and the measures to reduce deficit，and the radical reform of the secondary education system and raising the university tuition to 9000 pounds. Some have met with strong resistance and suffered failure or unclear result，such as restructuring the NHS，simplifying and unifying the welfare claim system. An important event was the nationwide riots in August 2011 that caused huge casualty and property loss. The whole society debated on the root causes of the riots，blaming it on high unemployment rate，youth deprivation，bad policing policy，the gangster culture and strained race relations. The past two years also witnessed two happy events - Prince William’s wedding（2011）and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee of Accession to the throne（2012）- which brought pleasant atmosphere to the atmosphere mood of the public’s general mood.
