So said columnist and commentator, Quentin Letts, of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s handling of Northern Rock.

Quentin questioned a society where Tramps have alarm clocks - “even a hobo can’t have a lie-in these days” - and where our politicians surround themselves with cronies “just like African dictators surround themselves with entourages and black Mercs“. In other words, our leaders are not always helping themselves when it comes to building Trust in Politics and Politicians. He used the word ‘excrement’ in one piece of analysis, too, though my notes have struggled to identify the context.

Quentin was speaking at this morning’s London launch of the ninth annual Edelman Trust Barometer, sharing the platform with the doyenne of the British business media, Patience Wheatcroft, who lay down a couple of challenges and shared her distrust of (a) Wikipedia and (b) Hedge Funds and Private Equity Firms, whom she believes are ‘living off the turmoil they deliberately create in the markets’. It was powerful stuff - and although (UK) Trust in Business has held firm and (UK) Trust in Politics has bounced back over the past twelve months, we should all remain sensitive to Patience’s and Quentin’s analysis. ‘The choir boy Cameron’, Quentin added, ‘may begin to look a little wasted’ by the time the next election comes, while Hillary needs to beware ‘that there are many people out there who simply loathe her’ - reinforcing the Barometer’s findings that a shared belief in politics is a natural rallying point for peers/ ‘people like me’.

More thoughts on Trust will follow shortly. Meanwhile, David Brain and Richard Edelman are now off to Davos to share the Barometer’s findings with the Great and the Good of the world. No doubt both will offer thoughts from the mountaintop via their Blogs in the coming days. In fact, David has already started on his.

If you are interested in what I had to say this morning about the state of Trust in Britain, click here to see my presentation. The formal press Release is attached here and there is also an article in this morning’s FT:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9da7507a-c871-11dc-94a6-0000779fd2ac.html

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