How have recent political scandals in the UK impacted the public’s trust

in the government?

Slide 1:

A study done in 2022 found that only 35% of the UK population

believed they could trust the national government, lower than the OECD
average of 41%
But despite this the UK population showed to also believe that 75%
thought they could trust the average person, indicating that affiliation
with the government directly sows distrust.

But why is this?

Slide 2:

A potential reason for the distinct lack of trust in the government could
be The Partygate incident which occurred on the 30th of November 2021.
In which gatherings of significant stature (over 100 people) were being
orchestrated by members of the government and conservative party.
The significance of these gatherings was that they were being conducted
during the COVID-19 pandemic in which public health restrictions
prohibited such gatherings from occurring. These same Health
restrictions were extremely harsh on the average citizen, if you were
found breaking them you would be fined upwards of 100 pounds.
Furthermore, when Boris Johnson was questioned about the gathering
that had transpired in the 10th of Downing Street, he claimed that it was
‘only a work event’ and ensured that ‘all rules were followed’
Slide 3:

Naturally people were upset at this discovery, finding out that the
government had been violating their own rules, which they enforced so
strictly on the public, significantly damaged their image. But things
continued to get worse after Boris Johnson attempted to take a different
approach at a public apology.
Boris Johnson tried to retract their previous statement, instead of
claiming that ‘no rules were broken’ he was now claiming that they were
personally unaware of any rules that could’ve been broken.
This only furthered the public’s distrust in the government due to the
innate hypocrisy in this statement leading to how it could possibly be
interpreted as laws and regulations constructed are nothing more than a
joke. If officials are so quick to forget the law’s they made, why should
it be expected that everyone else remembers and follows them.
This eventually grew into protests against Boris Johnson due to the
unjust nature of them being capable of avoiding and being ignorant to
the law, whilst the public suffers under the conditions they created.

Slide 4:

But how does this relate to our piece?

I find some similarities between the events that unfold in our piece and
the actions taken by Boris Johnson. More specifically the repeated
attempts to manipulate the narrative and insincere apologies. In Boris’
many attempts to cover the story they would leave out or change details
to make the situation seem less severe than it was, but after being
repeatedly exposed for said lies, it only brought further attention to the
event. Similarly to how the teachers (and most people in a position of
power) handled the situation within our piece.

And naturally, due to these consistent strings of lies, the public grew
distrusting (in both our piece and reality), dissatisfied with any apology
that could be given at this point due to the expectation for it to be false
or hiding something. A concern justified as the apologies and excuses
continued to become more insincere, saying what they believed people
wanted instead of what actually occurred.

In both our piece and reality the public united to fight against the
injustice present, forming protests and raising awareness to the events
transpiring via media. This potentially being a showcase of why the UK
population feels they can trust each other more, conducting protests
helps strengthen a feeling of community whilst simultaneously tearing
down the governments image.

Slide 5:

Now how can my research help the creative process thrive.

Well with this knowledge I hope we can more accurately depict how
people in power do respond to public concern. Whilst what they are
saying are lies or fractions of the truth, they often deliver it with a
confidence and sometimes frustration that would make it seem like they
are annoyed you don’t believe them when it should be so obvious that
they are being truthful.

Furthermore, we can maybe look at expanding the ways we depict

protests instead of our typical 2 side fights because as seen on a previous
slide protests can come in many different forms, some of which even
comedic.

Slide 6:

Thanks for watching, if you have any further questions… I probably

can’t answer them to be honest. But I hope you enjoyed!