British public wrong about nearly everything

mattyfez said:
Important things like an open in/out EU referendum would be a disaster if open to the public.

I only hope the Conservatives have already planned a 'U turn' strategy (they have hinted at a public vote) for this as most people would vote according to what the 'red tops' tell them. That would be out of the EU.

It's just one example of where true referendum style democracy would be economic suicide, most of the public, never mind how intelligent they are, are not exposed to the true picture, by default cannot make a balanced decision as they do not know the facts.
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It's most likely worse than that. Throughout history people have loved to believe that their woes are down to external forces. These days you can't publicly blame witchcraft, the gods or other ethnic or religious groups, so after years of negative media the EU has become the default bogeyman for many. Popular decisions being made about it based on hard facts and logic now seem a vanishingly small probability.
 
How do they know how much fraud there is? Presumably until everyone is caught and recorded a fraud then it's just a guess, and when they catch all the fraudsters and can tell us how many there are, then there will be none.

Even at 70p on the 2010 figures the cash amount was 2 billion. True 3.x million was given away erroneously but 2 billion is 2 billion however you try to underplay it.
 
Most of it is down to the government intentionally misleading though, take for instance this one:

and that 29 per cent of people think more is spent on Jobseekers' Allowance than pensions.

In fact we spend 15 times more on pensions - £4.9 billion on JSA vs £74.2 billion on pensions.
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This government with help from the media has systematically demonised the unemployed so that the government could turn us into China and create cheap labour force, people are now being forced (with threat of sanctions/starvation/homelessness) to work for private companies like Poundland for free, whilst undermining the national minimum wage law and replacing real jobs.
 
The Running Man said:
How do they know how much fraud there is? Presumably until everyone is caught and recorded a fraud then it's just a guess, and when they catch all the fraudsters and can tell us how many there are, then there will be none.

Even at 70p on the 2010 figures the cash amount was 2 billion. True 3.x million was given away erroneously but 2 billion is 2 billion however you try to underplay it.
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True, but how much does detecting the £2bn cost? And either way, it's a far cry from the £24bn or so the public think is being fraudulently claimed
 
estebanrey said:
How do we KNOW benefit fraud is only 70p in every £100? Fraud, by it's nature is hidden and unaccountable.
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This, its a bit like when they say 6 out of 10 crimes go unreported, how can you possibly know if it is unreported, what this should say is 70p in every £100 is detected as fraudulent, might just mean that it is not being policed well enough or in not policable.

What's to stop me reading the symptoms of depression for instance, going to the docs and saying all the right things and eventually getting signed off on dla?, how could someone police that?, no offence to actual depression or mental health sufferers. Or is it also not fraudulent to when visiting the job centre to sign on lie about the amount of jobs you have applied for? Which I bet happens on a very regular basis.
 
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There should probably be some kind of bar for entry in democracy, whereby you cannot vote if you cannot display a basic level of intelligence and understanding of the consequences of your vote. We dont allow people to dispense financial advice if they aren't qualified, so why do we allow them a say in the running of a country?
 
jamief said:
There should probably be some kind of bar for entry in democracy, whereby you cannot vote if you cannot display a basic level of intelligence and understanding of the consequences of your vote. We dont allow people to dispense financial advice if they aren't qualified, so why do we allow them a say in the running of a country?
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This wouldn't be a democracy though, it's more akin to a meritocracy.
 
Are you Scottish? You should have limited if any say in how our country is run anyway.

But anyway how could you test for intelligence? How do you know whether someone actually understands the issues out there?

If you asked people to give their views on mass immigration for example there is only 1 optimal answer. So what do you do with the people who want to embrace it? Remove their vote altogether?
 
Statisticians telling us what we already knew. I guess that they have to get something right…. :p
 
Where are they getting these "facts" about benefit fraud and immigration?

Also, people's opinions on these %'s are going to vary drastically depending on where they live in the UK.

It's early and maybe I'm missing something...
 
mmj_uk said:
Most of it is down to the government intentionally misleading though, take for instance this one:



This government with help from the media has systematically demonised the unemployed so that the government could turn us into China and create cheap labour force, people are now being forced (with threat of sanctions/starvation/homelessness) to work for private companies like Poundland for free, whilst undermining the national minimum wage law and replacing real jobs.
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This.
 
mmj_uk said:
Most of it is down to the government intentionally misleading though, take for instance this one:



This government with help from the media has systematically demonised the unemployed so that the government could turn us into China and create cheap labour force, people are now being forced (with threat of sanctions/starvation/homelessness) to work for private companies like Poundland for free, whilst undermining the national minimum wage law and replacing real jobs.
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I wouldn't be that cynical. I think the government's focus on the unemployed is a ploy to win votes as they think the general public share a dislike for them. This is probably due to the recession meaning people have found it financially tough. Therefore a mentality of "If we're in this together why are they not helping" propagated by the governement and media has allowed an opening for stupid policies to try and win votes e.g. the "bedroom tax".

So whilst I agree with you on the outcome, I don't on the logic behind it.
 
To an extent however unemployment did need to be demonised. The welfare benefits are too great and so people are choosing ti live off them rather than work. Something had to be done to change this.
 
arknor said:
are police forces still fudging the figures?
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Well one of the biggest differences between 1995 and now is social media and the internet.

The public see and hear about more crime than they used to, but that doesn't mean that there is more crome than there used to be. Increased exposure to information doesn't mean that whatever is happening in that information is happening more frequently.

A warped case of 'ignorance was bliss'.
 
=XDC=FluphyBunny said:
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And you really think a bigger survey in person would make any difference.

Before you read the article, could you put a reasonable value to anything, have you studied every area of politics and no the ins and outs of a 10s of thousands of different areas.

Of course not as no one person has the capability of learning that much, let alone the time to do it.
 
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