Can Cameron restore trust in institutions - and in each other?

Blair's biographer calls for an end to our culture of suspicion

By Anthony Seldon

With the wheels of the general election campaign now creaking into motion at the last of the party conferences, there is one question that voters of all social spheres and political hues will be asking increasingly of those who wish to win power. It applies to all areas of society, but above all to our very system of government, which has not been at lower ebb in living memory – what steps will be taken to restore public trust in this country?

 Few could deny that there is a palpable lack of trust in our society today, a culture of dishonesty and suspicion that has crept almost unnoticed into our lives over recent years. Scandals like the MPs’ expenses, the banking crisis, death at the hands of the police, or the incompetence of social services are only the serious and high-profile examples of the kind of untrustworthy behaviour taking place in some form every day, while signs showing how little we trust one another are just as evident: the armies of CCTV cameras, intrusive security measures, extensive regulation and watertight legal agreements are the safety harnesses in a culture that has learned to be distrustful.

 A certain amount of distrust is healthy, of course. Blindly trusting others can leave us open to exploitation, and our system of democracy is rightly based upon the principal that no one person or group should ever be entrusted with too much power over other people’s lives. This said, the level of distrust to which we have sunk is actually hampering our interactions, and it is more than a little unpleasant living in a society where one is looked at – and often feels one has to look at others – with suspicion.

 Trust – both placing faith in others, and acting in an honest and trustworthy fashion – is the overarching human value that we need to put this country back on the road to recovery. Societies with higher levels of trust have many advantages over distrustful ones: they are known to be happier, healthier and more economically efficient. They avoid the ‘transaction costs’ that affect distrustful societies, the safety measures like those described above which, while helping to prevent abuses of trust, stop people and institutions functioning as freely, quickly and cheaply as they might do otherwise. In a similar way, trusting and trustworthy individuals have been shown to live better, more contented lives than their suspicious counterparts.

 To overcome the rather gloomy state of affairs in which we now find ourselves, each of us must try individually to be more trustworthy and trusting, since trust is an intrinsic value which cannot be forced upon anyone, and is enhanced or diminished by every single human interaction. Just as importantly, however, the next government has a golden opportunity to make significant structural and functional changes to the workings of our society, which will help to restore trust, and thus improve our collective quality of life.

 Most of the recent political focus has rightly been on cuts in public spending. The next Government will inherit a bank balance so deep in overdraft that one of the main priorities will necessarily be to review where savings can be made, and how our public services can be run more efficiently and effectively. If they manage this successfully, it will certainly help to restore trust, but this will no longer be sufficient for a society that is still reeling from numerous and serious abuses of their good faith – many people placed their trust in the banks because they were so successful, and look how well that turned out. A review must therefore also consider how to make our institutions much more visibly trustworthy in the eyes of a sceptical public.

In some cases it will be necessary to enforce greater openness and accountability, at least in the short term – both bankers and MPs, for example, have shamed themselves so greatly in the eyes of the public that nothing less than complete transparency of financial dealings and stronger regulation will suffice for beginning to restore trust. Banks and powerful businesses must take their potential for positively influencing society far more seriously – annual CSR tests, for example, would be a good start for ensuring that their responsibilities to the society which has helped them to flourish are met.

 There should be a much clearer code of ethics for our elected representatives, to ensure that the next Parliament is made up of individuals of a far higher moral calibre - the penalties for transgression should be more severe, and voters should have the right to recall those MPs they feel have not honoured their contract. The next Government should also seek to increase the diversity of those who run our country to properly reflect that of the population, as this will increase its legitimacy – open primaries are certainly a step in the right direction, but I also believe we should have a directly elected Senate to replace the House of Lords, further increasing the public’s right to choice. The next government is also likely to be trusted more if it trusts others – power has become far too centralised, and should be devolved to local government level wherever possible.

 In the same way, the government needs to trust institutions like schools and hospitals to run themselves independently. Trusting people to choose the best local health facilities to use, or the best school to send their children to, will provide the necessary incentives for these establishments to perform most effectively, and to keep improving the services they provide. This does not mean adopting the same battery-hen approach to education that we have seen over recent years, however, or the same reactive approach to health, policing and social services. Schools will be expected and trusted to give their pupils a rounded education, with sports, art, theatre and music just as important as academia, which teachers should teach as they think best. There is so much more to education than league tables, and both schools and parents must be trusted to raise children with this in mind.

 The NHS should do far more to promote healthy living, seeking to prevent illness rather than treat it wherever possible. The same should go for the police, who must be trusted to deter crime, and social services, who must do more to assist families and individuals with difficulties before their problems escalate. 

The next Government – and we ourselves, of course - must also understand that trust is not simply about today’s relationships, but also extends into the past and into the future. Too often we forget that those who gave their lives for this country’s values, those who campaigned for equality and civil liberties, who created beautiful architecture or fought to save green spaces in our cities from building works, did so because they wished to entrust these gifts to future generations. We have a duty - both to those who have gone before us and to those who will come after - to protect these things, fulfilling the trust placed in us.

 Above all, we must be looking to build trust in and amongst ourselves – we share this society with many millions of others, who all have the same rights and responsibilities as we do. Our every action affects another person’s ability to trust and be trustworthy, and so we must each start by behaving honestly and respectfully in our day-to-day lives. The Government could perhaps bring in measures to help with this as well, such as a year of Community Service for all at the age of 18, and national awards to recognise those who have helped to build trust in their own areas.

How far will the Conservatives succeed in achieving any of this if, as is generally expected, they come to power at the 2010 election? They have declared their intention to devolve power to local government and not to micromanage professionals, to bring higher ethical standards to politics and to give the public greater choice through open primaries and an increasingly diverse party, but the proof of the pudding will of course be in the eating. When crises occur, as inevitably they will, or when the public blames central government for local problems, it will be sorely tempting for the Conservatives to draw power close to their chest, as many other governments have done in the past. If they want to win back the public’s trust, however, they must resist this temptation. Trust can only truly be proven when it is put to the test, and the Government will earn the public’s good faith not just by behaving responsibly, but by trusting them too.

 Trust cannot be built up overnight - it may take the combined lifetimes of several governments. We have now reached the point, though, where something must be done to restore our faith in one another, and in the institutions we rely upon for our well-being and security. If this country is to become more efficient, and if the people are to live happy, healthy lives, free from fear and suspicion, then we simply cannot avoid the question of trust.

5 October 2009

Anthony Seldon. Biographer of Tony Blair and author of Trust: How We Lost It and How to Get It Back.,