Yesterday, I was with Ben Page, chief executive of the pollsters Ipsos Mori. I was there to extract information out of him for an investigation into who non-voters are, why they don’t vote and how they might be persuaded to do so. On this stuff, and all political polling, he is fascinating. It is just a shame that politics is the only aspect of his work he can really get the media interested in.
For example, he and his team have just done a load of work about trust, which we all know is sadly lacking in every respect in this benighted world. How many times I have uttered the words: “Trust in politicians is at historic lows”. This global collapse in trust is very real. Except it probably isn’t. The latest Ipsos Mori report, Trust: The Truth, which is due out in a couple of weeks, shows – breaking news – that there is no global crisis in trust.
While trust in politicians and government is low, it is no lower than it was in 1983. Also, as we seem to hear all the time, traditional (would that be mainstream?) media has had it. Except that trust in “old” media actually continues to rise, as trust in the internet is falling. (It is worth pointing out that this paper is the most trusted newspaper in the UK among under-30s)
Furthermore, when Michael Gove said that “people in this country have had enough of experts” , I can only assume the data he examined before making that assertion was flawed. Trust in experts is high and rising. Scientists are trusted more than any other group. And, most pleasingly of all, the person in the street is actually rather trusting of other ordinary people in the street. You read it here first.
