So what is it that Hans-Rudolf Merz is doing that Gordon Brown is not?
Herr Merz being the current president of the Swiss Confederation.
The Readers Digest has polled the populaces of sundry European countries on their trust, or otherwise, in sundry professions, including politicians. So I have charted the figures for little or no trust in politicians, and we manage second behind the Czechs:
The Swiss are the least distrusting, with only 81% having little or no trust, followed by the Dutch at 84% and Putin, Medvedev et al at 85%. At the other end of the scale, 96% of us have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in firefighters and 93% in airline pilots.
In other findings, Lloyds TSB is the UK's most trusted bank. I am not making this up.
The Readers Digest has polled the populaces of sundry European countries on their trust, or otherwise, in sundry professions, including politicians. So I have charted the figures for little or no trust in politicians, and we manage second behind the Czechs:
The Swiss are the least distrusting, with only 81% having little or no trust, followed by the Dutch at 84% and Putin, Medvedev et al at 85%. At the other end of the scale, 96% of us have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in firefighters and 93% in airline pilots.In other findings, Lloyds TSB is the UK's most trusted bank. I am not making this up.
Labels: fun with statistics
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on Wednesday, April 08, 2009 at 11:06 am.
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Even so, 81% isn't exactly a resounding vote of confidence. I wonder if they have estate agents in Switzerland, and if so how they fare.
They did not have estate agents - hawk, hawk, hawk and spit - as an option, but car salesmen and pro footballers fared pretty badly.
Confidence in airline pilots seems worryingly low to me I `m not sure I would get on a plane with much short of 100%.
Best stay at home
From this it seems that the two ways that politicians can become more trusted is to follow the Swiss example of making decision making very locally accountable or the Russian example of killing anyone who opposes you.
Paul - Good point.
Ross - Think I prefer the Swiss model.
You know what I don't trust? Whatever idiot made that graph. I mean seriously, if you want anyone to trust this blog (since we're all taking about trust here), take down that graph and find or make one by someone with a basic understanding of honesty in statistics and who doesn't attempt to mislead by starting the axis at a point other then zero to misleadingly emphasise the difference.
I've read 'How to lie with statistics' (Penguin, Huff '54) too, and know about deliberately misleading presentation of stats.
However, you are over-interpreting - I created the chart by shoving the figures into Excel and charting them, automatically, from there. Feel free to replicate the process. Excel chose the scale and I was happy enough with the result.
You will note that I referenced the upper and lower figures in the text, and furthermore my experience of my regulars is that they do not just gawp at the pretty pictures but rather pay attention and are literate and aware individuals who can tell a hawk from a handsaw even when the wind is other than southerly.
Then again, I'm an 'idiot', so what do I know?
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