Fewer than 1 in 10 say they know what Universal Basic Income (UBI) is
Less than one in ten people (or to be more precise, less than one in ten people willing to do surveys that often contain political questions) say they know what ‘universal basic income‘ is.
It’s one of many pieces of commonly used political jargon that most of the public has either not heard of or or isn’t sure what it means.
Plus, of course, not everyone who says they know what something means necessarily does. As I said only half in jest:
This isn’t just a problem with jargon. It’s that across all aspects of politics, including knowing what parties stand for or even who party leaders are, the public’s knowledge reflects the public’s frequent lack of interest in the details of politics.
A reminder, once again, of The Basic Mistake of Politics: voters notice less but remember it for longer than politicos think.
Here’s the data from YouGov:
You caution about how little the public notices of politics is correct. I remember my astonishment as a teenager doing newspaper rounds and seeing a poll (in the Mirror, I think) around 1968-69, including three questions about the identities of the PM (only 96% knew Wilson); Leader of the Opposition (only 70% knew Heath) and Liberal Leader (only 40% knew Thorpe). I was staggered that as a 15-year-old I knew more than most voters. So maybe things haven’t changed that much?