Dear LPG, 

I think the British people might be among the most trusting people in the world, and I include myself in this. I hear and can tell quite a few stories that prove my opinion to be somewhere near the truth. I spent a little time this morning trying to find some Google data to back my theory up, but there was not a lot to be found on this subject from what I could see.  

In my humble opinion, some of our native Englishmen are so naïve. 

I think that, on average, the British man in the street is very easily persuaded by what others tell them. We often accept the advertising we see on our televisions and other media. 

I recently heard a story of a car sales company that advertised on TV about their cars being quality checked before being sold, followed by a news item focussing on the number of their vehicles which break down far too soon after purchase.

Over more recent years, many agencies have gone to a lot of trouble to warn about what to be wary of. This leaves me wondering why we individuals often don’t realise that the people doing this are making frightening amounts by relieving the average Brit of his hard-earned cash. 

Even without the backup of a survey, this has to tell us that some of the information we hear on the subject has to be true.

We have to be aware of what we are dealing with. The world has changed for the worst since my younger days. 

My intention is not to remind people of how silly we can be, but perhaps I am more focused on again reminding LPG readers of the sad fact that we all need to be more suspicious of what we see in the media; what a stranger who phones might drop into a seemingly innocent conversation, the wording of a potentially clear email or even of what is said by a person you have never met before and who comes up to you in the street.

I have to say that I think it is regrettable that we have to be so suspicious of every situation to protect ourselves from becoming one of the statistics that will feature in the following survey done on this subject. When considering all the statistics surrounding loneliness, the necessary suspicion is not conducive to an atmosphere where new friends can be made easily, and we know that there are lots of numerical data which shows that we need more reasons to keep the figures surrounding that subject to a minimum.

They always say that, of any proposition put to you, ‘if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!’ we need to keep this in mind.

Rudy Morgan