Who do you trust? It’s a simple question that has profound implications for our politics and how society functions.
It’s also a question that throws up unexpected answers when put to the general public.
In the latest UK Trust in Government Survey from the ONS, the British are found to be more trusting of each other and less trusting of government than their counterparts in other wealthy nations.
Three-quarters (75 per cent) of the UK population reported that they trust most other people, higher than the average among the OECD countries who participated in the survey (67 per cent).
Just over a third (35 per cent) of the UK population said they trusted the national government, which is lower than the OECD average of 41 per cent.
It comes after a mind-boggling Survation survey of children from 11 to 16 on trust and the media. When asked who they would turn to if they wanted to check the validity of a news story, 35 per cent chose social media influencers.
With politicians treated with increasing suspicion, restoring trust should be near the top of the long to-do list of the next prime minister, whoever they may be.
