WHAT HAPPENED TO TRUST?

Someone asked me the other day, ‘…when did trust disappear from our lives?’

It seems to me that people all over the country share a deep, instinctive belief that the people that we placed in a position of trust have somehow lied to us and failed us.

I suppose that this is not a new phenomenon, but regrettably it does seem to be an occurrence that is spreading!

These days the only thing that’s certain is "....you can trust a dishonest man to be dishonest but you can´t trust an honest man to be honest."

Let’s start with the invasion of Iraq! The order to go in was finally decided on a dodgy document which on later inspection contained outright distortion, selective use of intelligence, and the exertion of political pressure to influence the content of intelligence estimates in order to provide support going to war with Saddam. – In other words lies!

Fast forward to today. - We’ve got Horse Meat being sold to us as Beef; we’ve got a Senior Liberal politician, facing imprisonment for lying! We’ve had the story of a policewoman who had killed a motorcyclist while she was chatting to her partner on a mobile phone. – She walked free from court! 

From the lies and cover-ups that surrounded Hillsborough, to the exposure of top sportsmen like Lance Armstrong who finally admitted to cheating by taking performance enhancing drugs, while certain parts of the NHS, we now learn they have been killing us off by the thousands.

But it's not just the political classes that are letting the country down; it's a large swathe of the traditional establishment.

We have lived with lies and cover-ups from the Catholic Church over the sexual abuse of children. Then there’s the likes of paedophilia from Garry Glitter, Sir Jimmy Savile, Sir Cyril Smith and now allegations of kiddy fiddling by a longstanding Soap Star! 

Leveson has shown that the media has become nothing more than the segmented mouth piece for political parties and big business and our once trusted Banks will do almost anything that profits their bottom line.

"We're all doomed!"

We’ve got fuel and food bills escalating because of spurious predictions by Government granted scientists, predicting that the human race would respond to climate change by becoming hobbit-sized pygmies; and, consequently, if we don’t all embrace the power of wind and solar technology, we are all doomed! 

It’s also rather evident how all politicians cherry pick their words and almost never answer a direct question; - the lying game unfolds on many levels.

I know one shouldn’t generalize, but people in business, Solicitors, Doctors, Teachers, The Clergy, Utility companies, Tree Huggers, Charities, the Media, the list is endless of those who obfuscate, twist the truth and exaggerate. They exploit complexity. Most of all, they look for details—real or unreal—that validate our suspicions.

Take Ed Miliband's surprise announcement the other day. 

Apparently, he now says he support the 10p rate of tax that the poorest benefited from until his party in government scrapped it in 2008. That was a move which made the lowest paid up to £232 worse off each year!

At the time you may remember, the Labour Leader said that abolishing the 10p rate of income tax for the poorest wage earners in the land was "fairer", and he voted that way in Parliament. 

But now, in opposition, surprise, surprise, he’s changed his tune! Red Ed Miliband now says that if Labour were in Government that they would undo this disastrous decision, and they would also create a new homes-tax for homes worth over £2million. 

It is expected that the Labour leader will call for a vote on this amazing U-turn while campaigning alongside their Eastleigh by-election candidate, John O'Farrell.

And why is John O’Farrell contesting this seat? – It’s because the previous chap had to resign for lying and perverting the course of justice!

Politics! – In fact most of the lies and the entire financial mess in which we currently find ourselves can be put down to a sad catalogue of appalling policy decisions by politicians who consistently put their own personal interests as career politicians before the long term interests of the country. 

I only hope that the time will come when those in authority will wake-up and start to understand the disillusionment that has taken hold in this country over the past generation.

Surely, now is the time to ask questions about leadership, ethics, identity, morality and the basic understanding of right from wrong; it’s time for togetherness and honesty.


So, as to why we have so little trust? – Well somebody put it far better than I - “Trust is like a vase …once it's broken, though you can fix it, the vase will never be same again.”