21% net optimism

→0pts on last week ↓-5pts on last year

27 Mar 2026

The petrol pump is where the war got personal

The story of confidence at a low ebb continues. As we enter Spring, we’d expect to start to see this lift, but we remain markedly down on last year as the pinch from the Iran war shows up in our daily lives. 65% of the country is terrified about what the Iran conflict will do to fuel prices. Three weeks ago it was 57%. You don’t get an eight-point jump in three weeks from people reading the papers. You get it from people standing at the pump watching the numbers climb.

Most of us can’t tell you who’s winning (a third literally don’t know). But we can all tell you what diesel costs. One member of our qual community described it as a reverse game show, trying to click the nozzle off before the total hit £40. I haven’t stopped thinking about that.

And everyone already knows the next bit. Brands pass costs on. Reeves doesn’t step in. The billionaires make money on the volatility and the rest of us absorb the hit in our weekly shop. Trust in the US government has hit a new low. UK government falling with it. Even the supermarkets are wobbling. The assumption across the board is: we carry the cost, nobody helps.

A reverse game show, trying to click the nozzle off before the total hit £40.

So people are doing the only rational thing. Pulling in. Less news, more pottering. Smaller radius, fewer plans. Shrinking the world to what’s within reach. The forecourt just told us that reach is getting more expensive too.

Based on Konfidant's weekly survey and qualitative interviews. Base: 2,000 UK adults per week.