They work themselves up into a righteous frenzy culminating in their leader, Reg, yelling “what have they [the Romans] ever given us?” Although the question is intended to be rhetorical, after a short pause one of the rank and file gingerly points out that the local aqueduct has been useful. Several others then feel obliged to chip in with other helpful innovations from the Romans, until finally Reg has to restate his question as “Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? !”  2  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  2  And what have the experts ever done for us? We have gained about 20 years of life expectancy since 1950  1  as a result of advances in water, sanitation and healthcare. Millions used to die of easily treatable illnesses like diarrhea or influenza. Polio used to paralyze 350,000 people annually as recently as 1988; today it has 2  been virtually eradicated . Average world incomes have risen over twentyfold - from $ to $ in 3  current $ - as a result of improved economic policies, particularly in developing countries. The proportion 4  of the world living in poverty fell from 44% in 1980 to 11% in 2013 .
Provide the public with tools to assess trustworthiness  It is hard to imagine a return to an age when large media companies controlled the flow of information, a small number of political parties dominated the political discourse and professionals of all sorts were trusted almost unquestioningly. Therefore it is even more important for citizens to be able to assess the quality of the flood of information and opinions they receive and to differentiate facts from falsehood. The online commerce world has developed many tools to inform judgments about who to trust such as ratings provided by other consumers, feedback on the reliability of other users, and data on performance measures such as timeliness of delivery. What tools might be relevant for the world of ideas? In some instances, traditional institutions have evolved to meet this need. NHS Direct and the National Institute of Heath Information for the Public websites are good responses to the phenomenon of patients coming to surgeries armed with reams of data and views from the internet. These authoritative websites provide a reliable source of information to discerning patients who would otherwise have to sift through sometimes contradictory information from multiple sources. In other instances, non-traditional sources of judging the quality of information have emerged. Fact checking websites (who appraise the veracity of claims made by public figures) are one example and have some similarities to peer review in academia which lends credibility (or not) to news and statements made by individuals.