Public Opinion – misperception and the problem of informed debate.

Labour often thinks that the media world is stacked against it – the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, the Sun, the Daily Telegraph and so on. Against this cacophony, Labour finds it very difficult to have its voice heard. But does this matter? Well, Labour thinks it does. After all, political discussion and public policy making ought to be based on sound evidence and reasoned debate.
So it would be great, wouldn’t it, if the public’s understanding of British society matched what is going on, out there, in the real world.
A recent survey by Ipsos MORI for the Royal Statistical Society and King’s College London has investigated just this. Published on July 9th it revealed how wrong the British public can be when asked questions about the make-up of the population and the scale of key social policy issues.

Here is a selection of Ipsos Mori’s findings.

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