British public wrong about nearly everything. What a surprise.

[SevenRivers]

According to this piece in the Independent, the British public are wrong about nearly everything. Sadly, this comes as no surprise to me as a regular contributor to the Forum, where some seem to parade their ignorance as a matter of pride.

 

Examples include -

 

The public believe that £24 out of every £100 paid out in benefits is claimed fraudulently. It's actually 70 pence.

 

Teen pregnancy - the public think 15% of 16 year olds get pregnant every year - the real figure is around 0.6%.

 

Pretty meaningless without seeing the absolute figures. 70 pence in every £100 could still be £millions per year given the size of welfare expense which could pay for schools, hospitals, infrastructure etc

[Daid]

How do they know what percentage is claimed fraudulently? no one can know, they can only guess.

 

Abortions are confidential so they also can't know how many 16 year olds get pregnant every year.

 

So in both examples they are just guessing and could be just as wrong as everyone else.

 

The only difference being that these are members of the public getting paid not only to be wrong but also to print their incorrect findings.

[andygardener]

and I bet if you ask them all how they base their assumptions you'll get a majority answer of 'The Media'

 

They only asked a follow up along those lines on the question about what percentage of the UK population not born here. The current official number is apparently 13% and anyone who had answered 26% or more was asked why they believed the number to be double or more the official figure which were answered as follows

 

People come into the country illegally so aren’t counted 56%

I still think the proportion is much higher than 13% - 46%

What I see in my local area 36%

What I see when I visit other towns/cities 34%

I was just guessing 23%

Information seen on TV 19%

Information seen in newspapers 16%

The experiences of friends and family 10%

I misunderstood the question 1%

Other (specify) 1%

Don’t know 3%

 

So media was far from top of the list.

[skinz]

Pretty meaningless without seeing the absolute figures. 70 pence in every £100 could still be £millions per year given the size of welfare expense which could pay for schools, hospitals, infrastructure etc

 

£24 in £100 isn't meaningless if you believe it..that could amount to Billions rather than Millions...if you read into it that is.

[maxmaximus]

£24 in £100 isn't meaningless if you believe it..that could amount to Billions rather than Millions...if you read into it that is.

 

What difference does it make what people believe, no one knows what percentage of benefits is defrauded.

What they know is that some people defraud the system, they know some are caught but they don’t know how many fraudsters are not caught, therefore they don’t know the percentage of benefits that is paid to fraudsters.

[Stan Tamudo]

What difference does it make what people believe, no one knows what percentage of benefits is defrauded.

What they know is that some people defraud the system, they know some are caught but they don’t know how many fraudsters are not caught, therefore they don’t know the percentage of benefits that is paid to fraudsters.

 

Says the well known SF shyster previously known as MrSmith.

[maxmaximus]

Says the well known SF shyster previously known as MrSmith.

 

:loopy::loopy::loopy:

[Stan Tamudo]

:loopy::loopy::loopy:

 

That isn't a very good defence MrSmith.

[maxmaximus]

That isn't a very good defence MrSmith.

 

:loopy::loopy::loopy:

[Daid]

That isn't a very good defence MrSmith.

 

But the synchronisation is cute, absolute perfect timing