'Steep' drop in public confidence in MPs, says watchdog

From The BBC

15 September 2011

There has been a steep decline in public confidence in MPs between 2008 and 2010, says the standards watchdog. The percentage of people in England who think MPs are dedicated to working well for the public dropped from 46% to 26%. The Committee on Standards in Public Life says its survey suggests concerns "with self-serving behaviour" by MPs overshadows other concerns. The survey of 1,900 people was carried out in the new year, 19 months after the MPs' expenses scandal. Although the watchdog's fourth survey shows a "long term decline in public confidence in those holding public office" since 2004, the report says that on many issues, the decline since 2008 has been even "steeper". It suggests there has been no "bounce" in confidence since the new government came to power - or if there was one it was short lived and died out before the survey was conducted, between 29 December 2010 and 4 January 2011. "Public satisfaction with the conduct of MPs has declined on every measure except taking bribes since the last survey was conducted," the report said.

Other findings included a drop in the number of people who believe MPs are competent, from 36% in 2008 to 26% in 2010, a reduction in the number of people who think MPs set a good example in their private lives from 36% to 22%, and a fall in those who think MPs tell the truth from 26% to 20%.Fewer people also think MPs make sure public money is spent wisely. The public attitudes survey lists 10 qualities considered important in an MP - including being dedicated to doing a good job for the public, not using power for personal gain, telling the truth and owning up when they make mistakes. But only on "not taking bribes" did a majority of people - 67% - believe that all or most MPs exhibited that quality. On each of the other nine, fewer than 40% of people interviewed in England believed most MPs had those attributes. The report says it suggests concerns about bribery, or about "outside influence" on politics "have been overshadowed by concerns with self-serving behaviour on the part of MPs". While the committee says it is not possible to say with certainty what lay behind the trend, "it is possible that the expenses scandal has had an impact on people's views and appear to have fed into and exacerbated the long-run trend of increasingly negative evaluations of politicians". People who supported one of the three main parties were more likely to believe standards were high among politicians. The young, people from ethnic minorities and those in higher paid jobs tended to have more trust in MPs in general. The survey was carried out before the latest escalation of the phone hacking scandal - and suggests that confidence in TV news and newspaper journalists had slightly increased since 2004.

In terms of who people trusted to tell the truth, judges and senior police officers were the most highly rated - with 80% and 73% of people trusting them respectively, followed by TV news journalists, top civil servants and broadsheet journalists. Tabloid journalists ranked lowest in terms of being trusted to tell the truth -

just 16% of people - while trust in MPs in general was at just 26%, although local MPs were more trusted. Committee chairman Sir Christopher Kelly said the results made "stark reading" and the drop in those who believed MPs were competent and dedicated to the public good was "worrying". He also warned parties not to duck the issue of reforming political funding, his committee has been carrying out an inquiry and is due to report soon. Sir Christopher said party funding, particularly donations of more than £100,000 were a source of "major concern" to the public and said most people believed they led to "special favours" for donors. "It would be a mistake for anyone to think this issue had gone away," he said adding that his committee's report would offer a "fresh, independent look at this issue. I firmly believe that the opportunity it offers to deal with this issue proactively, before another funding scandal forces change, should be taken”.

[…and in other News of the bleeding obvious……]