Whom Do We Trust? Neither Politicians Nor Journalists!

Whom do we trust? Certainly not politicians nor journalists. Doctors, yes, and no doubt nurses. Certainly teachers, professors, judges and priests, but not everyone trusts even them to tell the truth. One person in five say they don't believe that either judges or the clergy can be trusted.

27 February 2003

The Financial Times reported these results, focusing on business leaders, and to my surprise headlined the story "Business leaders enjoy revival in public trust", basing their headline on business leaders moving up form 25% last year to 28% this, a barely statistically significant three percentage points. If the FT does this to make their readers feel good, then little wonder that journalists rate bottom of the poll for their veracity, and the FT is thought generally to be the best of the lot.

I sit on the Science and Society Committee of the Royal Society, and am always taken somewhat aback by the hand wringing of the scientific community over their nostalgic belief that things aren't what they used to be in terms of the degree with which they are regarded by the rest of us in some awe. I suspect they never were! For the six years we've been tracking trust in scientists, there's been no change whatsoever in the percentage who say they trust scientist, and over the same period the percentage who say they don't trust scientists to tell the truth has actually fallen.

When you break it down, scientists who work in universities and environmental groups are trusted by most people, while scientists working for industry and government are not, according to work we've done recently for the University of East Anglia. This study also found that a majority of the public agrees that the government distorts facts in its favour on a number of current issues, such as climate change, radioactive waste and GMOs. At the same time, a majority rejects that the government is listening to public concerns about these issues.

There's actually been an increase over the years in the number of British adults who say they trust doctors, and also teachers, while clergymen and priests have taken somewhat of a knock. Sadly there's been a decline in the degree to which the ordinary man/woman in the street regard their fellow man/women in the street, as while nearly two thirds said they felt they could trust themselves, so to speak, in 1993, by last year this had fallen by ten points, and now just a bare majority say their fellow citizen can be trusted, and a thirds are wary.

What have civil servants done to deserve their increased ratings? Still fewer than half the public say they feel they can trust civil servants, 46% currently, the same as pollsters by the way, but when we started this lark for the Sunday Times in 1983, only one person in four said they, civil servants that is, were straight. In other words, they've doubled over the past two decades.

I recall when the head of the Central Statistical Office, the late Sir John Boreham, called me in to discuss my findings: "Why the next thing you know, they won't be trusting government statistics!" he exclaimed. I just about fell off my chair laughing, and when I recovered reminded him that they'd changed the way the calculate the unemployment rate had reached 17, four years into the Thatcher administration's period of office.

Seriously, this is a serious problem, government ministers having three quarters of their citizens saying they are not to be trusted, and the Blair Government is suffering the consequences of this now when they need it most, and they have only themselves to blame.

MORI Veracity Index

Q. " ... would you tell me if you generally trust them to tell the truth, or not?"

160	Tell the truth	Not tell the truth	Net Tell the truth
160	'83	'93	'97	'99	'00	'01	'02	'03	'83	'93	'97	'99	'00	'01	'02	'03	'83	'93	'97	'99	'00	'01	'02	'03
Occupations	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Doctors	82	84	86	91	87	89	91	91	14	11	10	7	9	7	6	6	68	73	76	84	78	82	85	85
Teachers	79	84	83	89	85	86	85	87	14	9	11	7	10	10	10	8	65	75	72	82	75	76	75	79
Professors	n/a	70	70	79	76	78	77	74	n/a	12	12	10	11	10	11	11	n/a	58	58	69	65	68	66	63
Judges	77	68	72	77	77	78	77	72	18	21	19	16	15	15	15	19	59	47	53	61	62	63	62	53
Clergyman/Priests	85	80	71	80	78	78	80	71	11	13	20	14	16	15	14	20	74	67	51	66	62	63	66	51
Scientists	n/a	n/a	63	63	63	65	64	65	n/a	n/a	22	27	25	22	23	22	n/a	n/a	41	36	38	43	41	43
Television news readers	63	72	74	74	73	75	71	66	25	18	14	17	18	17	19	24	38	54	60	57	55	58	52	42
The Police	61	63	61	61	60	63	59	64	32	26	30	31	33	27	31	26	29	37	31	30	27	36	28	38
The ordinary man/woman in the street	57	64	56	60	52	52	54	53	27	21	28	28	34	34	31	32	30	43	28	32	18	18	23	21
Pollsters	n/a	52	55	49	46	46	47	46	n/a	28	28	35	35	34	35	34	n/a	24	27	14	11	12	12	12
Civil Servants	25	37	36	47	47	43	45	46	63	50	50	41	40	45	42	41	-38	-13	-14	6	7	-2	3	5
Trade Union officials	18	32	27	39	38	39	37	33	71	54	56	47	47	46	49	53	-53	-22	-29	-8	-9	-7	-12	-20
Business Leaders	25	32	29	28	28	27	25	28	65	57	60	60	60	61	62	60	-40	-25	-31	-32	-32	-34	-37	-32
Government Ministers	16	11	12	23	21	20	20	20	74	81	80	70	72	73	72	73	-58	-70	-68	-47	-51	-53	-52	-53
Politicians generally	18	14	15	23	20	17	19	18	75	79	78	72	74	77	73	75	-57	-65	-63	-49	-54	-60	-54	-57
Journalists	19	10	15	15	15	18	13	18	73	84	76	79	78	75	79	75	-54	-74	-61	-64	-63	-57	-66	-57

Base: 2,141 British Adults Aged 16+, most recent fieldwork 6-10 February 2003

Technical details

The poll was conducted for the British Medical Association by MORI Social Research Institute. A representative sample of 2,141 adults aged 15 and over were interviewed in home face-to-face at 201 sampling points in |England, Wales and Scotland between 6-10 February 2003

This article was first published in the Parliamentary Monitor

Sir Robert Worcester is Chairman of MORI

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