Politicans lack older people's trust on referendum

Ahead of the upcoming campaign on Scottish independence a recent opinion poll commissioned by Age Scotland shows that older people have lost complete trust in politicians with only 11% of older voters saying they trust them.

While 96% of over 50's say they are likely to vote in the upcoming referendum on Scottish independence, less than half felt suitably informed about the issues surrounding the referendum and almost six out of ten (57%) agree that charities, trade unions, churches and other civic society institutions should play a larger role in the debate about independence.

Commenting on the poll Chief Executive of Age Scotland David Manion said:

"It is clear that with 2m people in Scotland over 50 and over 90% of them planning to vote in the referendum, the over 50s is the key constituency for all sides of the referendum campaign to engage with. However it is equally clear that older voters do not trust politicians to give them all the information to allow them to make an informed choice about Scotland's constitutional future.

"Older people want and deserve to be much better informed about the issues and right now the focus on legality and process in the arguments for and against a new constitutional settlement for Scotland is actually a distraction to the real debate."

The poll was conucted by VisionCritican on behalf of Age Scotland in February 2012 and comprised 1000 people aged fifty and over in Scotland.