Public perceptions on immigration etc

CLAPTON

well of course

99.9% of the people don't know what 99.9% means

Most people are concerned with the qualitative nature of their experiences.

Just because some morons asked people to quantify things that most of us don't quantify, they make ludicrous conclusions.

They know this too.

Graham_Devon

To be honest there is nothing worse than a group of people stating their opinion only to be told they are wrong by people who know better than them.

Keep doing that, and more and more will go against the "EU is good for you" line.

The EU are very good at asking the same question until they get the answer that suits. We don't want to go down that road.

Graham_Devon

BobQ wrote: »

I think it is a consequence of the way information is communicated in the guise of news these days.

People often do not delve into the real story, they believe the Daily Mail headlines, soundbites on Twitter, the news headlines and are too busy to read the facts. With a few notable exceptions, journalism is not as good as it used to be and at times is very sloppy.

I think people have become very wary of believing the stats though too.

There are so many different outcomes of essentially the same thing, depending on what the author wants to achieve its a minefield. People have lost the ability to take a set of statistics for what they are.

grizzly1911

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I think people have become very wary of believing the stats though too.

There are so many different outcomes of essentially the same thing, depending on what the author wants to achieve its a minefield. People have lost the ability to take a set of statistics for what they are.

People have never been gullible but now they have greater ability to research and question what they are being told. In the past the detail couldn't so easily be unearthed by the masses.

In the same way that you don't believe a price quoted for an article any more and will "google" it.

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I think people have become very wary of believing the stats though too.

There are so many different outcomes of essentially the same thing, depending on what the author wants to achieve its a minefield. People have lost the ability to take a set of statistics for what they are.

Many people never really had either the ability or inclination to delve into stats. This error tends to be compounded by an inability to determine the difference between experts and commentators.

People can't check everything but if it's something that really matters to them they ought to make an effort every now and again.

The MMR scandal is a good example. How many people strongly against giving their kids the MMR jab (and advising others to do the same) actually read the research paper?

It would have been obvious to most people with a basic education that the link between MMR & autism was non-existent. However, people preferred to be spoon fed by the media and this lead directly to children's deaths.

yorkshirekev

I think the competition angle is often underplayed. Now I work in an office where our (English) management are trying to get more Eastern European people in. I understand why because the British equivalent of these people will be in better jobs.

It is a little disheartening seeing all these bright young people and knowing that to be quite blunt I seem a little thick alongside them. The pressure for work is at the lower end of the scale and that is where the tension comes from.

When you are economically valuable, this sort of thing does not matter to you.

kabayiri

This perception thing works both ways though, doesn't it?

What percentage of the public don't understand the difference between deficit and national debt?

It suits the politicians to talk about deficit because its a much smaller number.

What's that phrase? Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

moneyistooshorttomention

...and then most of us will be where I personally am at...which boils down to "If you want to use it (ie public services) have you paid for it (eg through NI contributions, income tax)?" or are you trying to be a Free Rider.

Free Riding is something that is done by people of any nationality, be they British/official immigrants/illegals. It makes no difference. Some people try and free ride from every category.

The other point is sheer numbers of people and again (I would say) most of us don't differentiate as to why a particular person is an extra "number sitting here in Britain". It simply doesn't matter whether they are an "extra person" because they aren't British (meaning "British" rather than "British nationality") or because their parents had more than replacement level of children (ie more than 2.4 children). Either way they are "extras" and increasing the population.

That's before we get into the whole "If you live in a country (ANY country) then you must adopt its Way of Life whether you like it or no and not try and change the prevailing ethos to one that suits you personally"

Personally, I'm only too thankful that I can see that those accusations of racism that have often, in the past, been levelled at the heads of those who simply ARENT racists by any reasonable persons definition seem to be dropping off and its becoming accepted that (non-racist) us ARE simply making perfectly valid points.

zagubov

Moby wrote: »

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-public-wrong-about-nearly-everything-survey-shows-8697821.html

Something I often think when I see some of the threads on here.

TBH, when I first followed the link and read the headline I thought I'd reached The Onion!:D

N1AK

Moby wrote: »

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-public-wrong-about-nearly-everything-survey-shows-8697821.html

Something I often think when I see some of the threads on here.

Great article. The shame is that the thinking largely stops with: stupid public.

I used to be a lot more optimistic about people in my youth; now I believe that many are ignorant by choice. However, people don't come to think foreign aid is one of the top three areas of government spending, rather than one of the smallest, on their own.

The news media is clearly misinforming people. I'm very dubious about efforts to regulate the press, however the bias in press reporting is causing massive harm to society and our country. Look at the MMR scare for an extreme example. This is only going to get worse as more people get their information from diverse sources over the internet which are even harder to regulate.