Trust in the BBC has widely been called into question in recent months, with scandals over a Blue Peter phone-in vote and the documentary about the Queen. Despite this, the UK public are most likely to trust the BBC out of a range of British institutions, much more than they trust the government — which is just as well, since TV and radio broadcasters are seen by far more as being influential than are the government.
For the second month in a row, Ipsos's Political Monitor data shows that public concern about the economy has moved into the top five issues facing the country. Almost one in five people (18%) spontaneously mention the economy when asked "what would you say is / are the most important issue(s) facing Britain today?".
Every year I'm fascinated to see just how stable public trust is in the occupations in the public's eye. Yet to see the media listen to the commentators on radio and television, you'd think that trust in institutions is declining sharply. To listen to them, you'd think that nobody trusts anybody anymore. They are wrong: there has been no general decline in trust over the past two decades, as shown over nearly a quarter of a century, by our surveys, initially done in 1983 for the Sunday Times and this year sponsored by the Royal College of Physicians.
On Tuesday 5th February, the primary season reaches a crescendo as twenty four states vote simultaneously for their preferred presidential candidate. Much larger than any previous "Super Tuesday", the day's voting should see a clearer picture emerge of who each party's nominee will be.
Ipsos MediaCT, one of the leading agencies in media research, is delighted to announce a continuation of its relationship with BARB (a joint company of BBC, ITV, Channel 4, five, BSkyB and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) for the provision of its Establishment Survey.
Yesterday the Liberal Democrat party elected Nick Clegg their new leader. This will likely yield a boost in the polls for the Liberal Democrats, who have been trailing in recent months: Ipsos's December Political Monitor has the Liberal Democrats on 14%, and their share hasn't risen above 20% since the summer of 2006 — Voting Intention in Great Britain.
