People cannot make good democratic decisions on the basis of misinformation. This issue has long bedevilled the debate over immigration, where surveys find that the average person grossly over-estimates the number of people living in Britain but born abroad. That factor is undermining rational debate about welfare spending, where public perceptions are again far out of touch with reality.Professor Sir John Hills, director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics, told a recent meeting organised by the Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace Commission – see the article on page 6 – just how skewed public opinion had become regarding welfare spending. Half the population, he said, believed that 40 per cent of tax credits and welfare spending