New Institute for Economic Affairs poll: most people don’t think politicians make decisions based on what’s best for the country
New polling figures out today reveal just how disaffected the British public is with government.
More than three-quarters of British people say they feel they have not very much influence, or no influence at all, on the national government’s decision-making, according to a new ComRes poll for the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a free markets think tank.
Half of Britons think that the level of influence governments have over people’s lives is too high, and just eight per cent of respondents said that politicians make decisions based on what’s best for the country.
The poll also found that four in five people agreed with the idea that laws and regulations “fail to achieve what they are meant to” and “often create problems even if they are introduced with good intentions".
The polling was carried out as part of a new IEA project called the “Paragon Initiative”.
Commenting on the project’s launch, IEA director general Mark Littlewood said: “For too long, people have accepted mediocrity with a government monopoly as they don’t know anything different.”
“The public clearly believe that the politicians are acting in their own interest, at the expense of what’s best for the families up and down the country,” he added.
The IEA has argued that high levels of government expenditure and regulation, complexity and a lack of competition in public services, too much centralisation of power and a flagging welfare state make the current government model “failing and unsustainable”.