When studying the degree to which we trust the politicians we elect, there’s some dark comfort to be found in the reality that levels of trust have been low since the 1930s, when records began. Accounts of a “crisis in trust” are overblown. Yes, there was a significant dip after the last economic crash and the MP expenses scandal, just as there was another after the EU referendum. In a desperate hunt for good news, an optimist might suggest that low levels of trust in politicians is nothing more than a healthy scepticism. Surely we want the public to be questioning and sceptical, if the alternative is fawning obedience to an

Source: The Times August 31, 2020 23:15 UTC