Chris Birt, associate director for Scotland at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, explores how financial pressure is eroding trust in politics — and what voters say would restore faith as Scotland heads towards May’s election.

In her book You Learn by Living, Eleanor Roosevelt said: “Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier.”

This would be a useful mantra for those standing in May’s Holyrood election to repeat. Because now is a time for political courage. With far too many people feeling overlooked and ignored by politics, the cure for that is to act, to be bold, to deliver change.

Nowhere is that starker than in the struggles that so many in Scotland face on a day-to-day basis. The polling we have published today shows that nearly half of people in Scotland feel economically insecure, or in other words, they are worried about their family’s economic security.

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Even more acutely, around one in five people are very economically insecure, and report clear signs of financial stress, such as being unable to afford essentials.

We also show how this is linked to political disaffection in Scotland. More than half of people who are very economically insecure are also politically disaffected.

The data also allows us to hold a mirror up to the political parties who aspire to enter the........

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