ConservativeHome has already commented on The Observer's shock at a poll yesterday which showed that most people are sceptical about the real reasons for climate change.
What's heartening about this is the way in which public attitudes and instincts can still withstand the most determined onslaught from the political class and the liberal elites (others have called it 'the wisdom of crowds').
Another example: during the wall-to-wall media promotion of the Live Aid guiltfest a few years ago, amid all the pictures of pop celebrities and the nodding talking heads, the Sunday Times carried a report on a poll which found that around two-thirds of those asked saw 'bad governance' as the premier reason for Africa's continued poverty.
I believe it was Iain Duncan Smith who once pointed out that given the strength of the onslaught against them, largely from above, it was extraordinary that the public as a whole continued to believe in certain values and hold certain views. And traditionally, the Conservatives always had more faith in the instincts of the public, although this might well have changed - in many respects they too play to the critics now rather than the gallery.
But we should never underestimate the power and determination of the elites. They can make an issue into a non-issue. As Theodore Dalrymple has said, what the intelligentsia wants, the intelligentsia usually gets. I am personally against the death penalty, but can fully appreciate how, as an issue (and one on which there are always big majorities in favour) it has very effectively been put out-of-bounds.
Underlying all this is the political class's contempt for, lack of understanding of and, indeed, fear of, the public.
