That’s no small question. But it’s a fundamental one when it comes to politics.
For democracy to work well, voters have to have at least a modicum of faith that when politicians are taking decisions they are doing it in our best interests, or at least they are doing what they perceive to be the right thing even if you believe they are wildly wrong.
There’s little doubt that the agonies of the Brexit process saw trust being stretched to breaking point.
While in such an era of political controversy there has been huge concern, thousands of column inches and hours of discussion on the airwaves about the damage that’s been done, the British public didn’t just wake up one morning and decide that their politicians were a bunch of charlatans.
And there were plenty of reasons why voters had concerns about whether they could trust them long before a certain campaign group put a certain number on the side of a red bus.
It seems a different age, but there were dramatic events in the previous decade that certainly undermined the relationship between the public and those in power.
And in a new documentary, The Decade of Distrust, to be aired on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday evening, we delve into the archive of 2000 to 2010.
We revisit the political controversies of the Iraq war, the jaw-dropping revelations of the MPs’ expenses scandal, the estimate-busting increase in immigration, the horror of Harold Shipman’s murders and, more than anything else, the financial crash, the moment when the foundations of the economy and the basis of our political assumptions simply fell away.
The programme takes us from Gordon Brown’s living room in Fife and George Osborne’s editor’s office at the Evening Standard in London back in time.
It was almost eerie to talk to those two about how the crash unfolded and the impact it had on our faith in the political system.
The former prime minister now believes the people lost trust not because his government made mistakes in handling the crisis, but because they didn’t explain to the public what was happening.
He told me: ‘We didn’t communicate properly, and trust was lost because of that.
“I look back to Roosevelt who did Saturday night radio broadcasts, I kept thinking what is the medium to get our message across?
“People wanted gameshows. Social media was becoming big but we didn’t really realise the power of it.
“So we didn’t get our message across properly, we didn’t explain it’s a banking crisis, it was worldwide, we had an answer.”
George Osborne reflects that the combination of events in those years, the “rabbit punches of the expenses scandal, and of the bailing out of the banks” created a climate where people found it harder to trust the government, with consequences we are still living with today, although he jokes that the cartoons he publishes in the paper he edits now are far less rude than those in previous centuries.
British voters have always been a healthily sceptical bunch.
Politicians have never exactly been held up as paragons of virtue.
But it is hard for any political generation to restore the public’s faith and trust once it has gone, and the first 10 years of this century set the scene for the turmoil in the UK we have just all lived through.
FREDERICTON – A look at David Coon, leader of the Green Party of New Brunswick:
Born: Oct. 28, 1956.
Early years: Born in Toronto and raised in Montreal, he spent about three decades as an environmental advocate.
Education: A trained biologist, he graduated with a bachelor of science from McGill University in Montreal in 1978.
Family: He and his wife Janice Harvey have two daughters, Caroline and Laura.
Before politics: Worked as an environmental educator, organizer, activist and manager for 33 years, mainly with the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.
Politics: Joined the Green Party of Canada in May 2006 and was elected leader of the New Brunswick Green Party in September 2012. Won a seat in the legislature in 2014 — a first for the province’s Greens.
Quote: “It was despicable. He’s clearly decided to take the low road in this campaign, to adopt some Trump-lite fearmongering.” — David Coon on Sept. 12, 2024, reacting to Blaine Higgs’s claim that the federal government had decided to send 4,600 asylum seekers to New Brunswick.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
FREDERICTON – A look at Blaine Higgs, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick.
Born: March 1, 1954.
Early years: The son of a customs officer, he grew up in Forest City, N.B., near the Canada-U.S. border.
Education: Graduated from the University of New Brunswick with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1977.
Family: Married his high-school sweetheart, Marcia, and settled in Saint John, N.B., where they had four daughters: Lindsey, Laura, Sarah and Rachel.
Before politics: Hired by Irving Oil a week after he graduated from university and was eventually promoted to director of distribution. Worked for 33 years at the company.
Politics: Elected to the legislature in 2010 and later served as finance minister under former Progressive Conservative Premier David Alward. Elected Tory leader in 2016 and has been premier since 2018.
Quote: “I’ve always felt parents should play the main role in raising children. No one is denying gender diversity is real. But we need to figure out how to manage it.” — Blaine Higgs in a year-end interview in 2023, explaining changes to school policies about gender identity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
OTTAWA – The pressing issues of climate change and food security join more familiar ones like violent extremism and espionage on a new list of Canada’s intelligence priorities.
The federal government says publishing the list of priorities for the first time is an important step toward greater transparency.
The government revises the priorities every two years, based on recommendations from the national security adviser and the intelligence community.
Once the priorities are reviewed and approved by the federal cabinet, key ministers issue directives to federal agencies that produce intelligence.
Among the priorities are the security of global health, food, water and biodiversity, as well as the issues of climate change and global sustainability.
The new list also includes foreign interference and malign influence, cyberthreats, infrastructure security, Arctic sovereignty, border integrity and transnational organized crime.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
