We rely on experts in every field. Yet from economists to climate scientists they hold wildly disparate views. Might the very idea of objective knowledge be illusory and expertise be a form of institutional power? If we were more sceptical would it lead to democracy or bring chaos?

Matthew Parris is a writer, broadcaster and former Conservative MP. He writes columns for the Times and the Spectator as well as presenting Radio 4’s Great Lives. Here he speaks to the IAI about expertise, vested interests, and the importance of a healthy kind of scepticism.

Daniel Rhodes: In the debate on IAI TV you talked about the threat of “technocracy” or a “rule of experts that might be considered a threat to democracy”. Do you see the experts themselves a threat to democracy or is it a tyranny of data that we should guard against?

Matthew Parris: I think it would be the tyranny of pretend objectivity. Politicians don’t pretend to be objective; we know where they’re coming from – their hidden agendas are not really hidden from us, and we take everything they say with a pinch of salt. But the moment someone puts on a white coat, or shows you some graphs on a screen and talks as an expert, the impression arises that they are objective, that they know everything that needs to be known, and they don’t actually have any agenda of their own. But expert opinions are still only opinions: sometimes they have good evidence, sometimes they don’t. Fashions reign among experts just as they do amongst journalists and politicians and they very often turn out to be completely wrong. That’s not an argument against having experts – against listening to what they say – but it’s an argument against the mystique that attaches itself to someone known as an expert, to whom politicians and the public are sometimes too ready to defer.

DR: So a “technocracy” is not a power grab by a particular group with vested interests?

MP: I don’t think that groups of experts get together to ask how to stage a coup, but I do think that all classes in society – and all professions – are in some way territorial. Everyone is trying to enhance their own status, but they need to be kept at bay, just as journalists and politicians need to be kept at bay. If we all keep doffing our caps and saying “Yes sir, if you say so, Dr. Feinstein, then that must be government policy”, then I think we make a mistake.

DR: With regards to public policy, do you think there should be some kind of bottom line whereby we should not accept our politicians acting against scientific consensus?

MP: No, there should be no bottom line: politicians are democratically elected, and as such they are quite entitled to challenge conventional wisdom, professional wisdom, or expert wisdom. If the public don’t like their challenges, the public can vote them out, but I would hate the idea that politicians, having the interests of the electorate at heart, they should simply defer to a sort of Brahmin caste of experts.

DR: But not all political offices are held through election; some are appointed. For example, a minister of health who doesn’t believe in vaccines: would that trouble you? Should there be an apparatus in place to prevent that happening?