British public wrong about nearly everything. What a surprise.

[s2 blade]

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%.

 

You start one thread in god knows how long and surprise surprise , it's slagging off the British public .

[Jonny5]

You start one thread in god knows how long and surprise surprise , it's slagging off the British public .

If you can come up with a thread to try and make yourself look good and everyone look like an idiot then go for it!

 

In the meantime leave him to what he does.....I almost added "best" there but that would indicate that he's something other than a one policy poster.

[Happ Hazzard]

Maybe we should abandon democracy and allow ourselves to be ruled by the people at the Independent and the Guardian? I'm sure we'd be much better off with them in charge.

[El Cid]

I lot depends on how the questions were phrased for example

 

3% are single parents, is that true???????????

 

I understood that 1/3 of parents are married, 1/3 living together but not married, and roughly 1/3 single parents.

 

Of course if you take the entire population it might be 3%; but what is the point of including children, single people, and pensioners?

[andygardener]

3% are single parents, is that true???????????

 

I understood that 1/3 of parents are married, 1/3 living together but not married, and roughly 1/3 single parents.

 

Of course if you take the entire population it might be 3%; but what is the point of including children, single people, and pensioners?

 

Indeed. And when you look at the actual answers to almost every question around 30%-35% answered don't know, which unless you actually know the exact answer is the correct answer. They then created a mean answer based on majority in the right ballpark with probably about 10% giving way off target answers, less the 35% who said they didn't know.

 

Very poor statistical exercise designed to make British people look stupid, just the thing the champagne socialists love.

[Vague_Boy]

The public believe that £24 out of every £100 paid out in benefits is claimed fraudulently.

 

Teen pregnancy - the public think 15% of 16 year olds get pregnant every year

 

Those are rather precise figures. Are the public collectively wrong in such exact detail?

[Cyclone]

probably correct if you take for the country as a whole?

BUT narrow it down to most council estates, towns and cities and apply the maths there and you will find that the percentage figures are far in excess of this report

 

But narrow it down to most suburbs full of expensive detached houses and the percentage figures are far lower.

 

Which would prove nothing, the only figures that matter when talking about the nation are the national ones.

 

---------- Post added 11-07-2013 at 07:24 ----------

 

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.

 

Abortions are confidential, but they are also reported in a confidential way, the system knows exactly how many abortions were performed (legally anyway).

[Mecky]

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%.

 

So you're saying other people are wrong and you are right?

[Cyclone]

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

 

The entire bill for claimable benefits is trivial compared to that for social services and the NHS.

 

---------- Post added 11-07-2013 at 07:28 ----------

 

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.

 

If you randomly choose 1000 benefits claimants, and then extensively and rigorously investigate them all for fraud, and you find 7 of them making fraudulent claims, then you have good evidence that the level of fraud is 0.7%.

 

If you hear about a few cases on the news, and then make up a number of 24%, you have no evidence of anything.

[Mecky]

The entire bill for claimable benefits is trivial compared to that for social services and the NHS.

 

It doesn't stop the government, aided and abetted by the rightwing press, putting the boot into people on benefits though, does it?