UNITED KINGDOM
The Freethinker
Three decades ago the priesthood was one of the most trusted professions, but a new poll shows that nowadays people are more likely to trust their hairdressers than priests.
However, priests still fare better than politicians in the trust stakes.
According to this report, politicians remain the least trusted profession with only 21 per cent of the public saying they trust them. They are followed closely by estate agents and journalists, both on 25 per cent.
Bobby Duffy, Director of the Social Research Institute at Ipsos MORI, said the public’s lack of faith in politicians signified:
A new crisis of trust. From this long-running survey we can see that public trust has been an issue for politicians for at least the past 33 years.
Other professions, though, have seen a long-term decline in trust, most notably the clergy, who were the most trusted profession when we started the series in 1983 and have fallen behind seven other groups.
The latest survey shows that people are more likely to trust each other than establishment figures, with 69 percent trusting ordinary people on the street, compared to civil servants (59 percent), lawyers (51 percent), NHS managers (49 percent) and charity chief executives (47 percent).
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