Crisis of trust – 1 IVOR ROBERTS


You can rely on me, I’m a …


Pressman, politician, priest. Not any more, says the British public, to whose list might be added banker, school teacher and doctor. But trust is a two-way process and if the fractured pillars of society are to be fixed, people should look to themselves


S ome 1,900 years ago the Roman poet selves?”)


Juvenal wrote in his Satires the ques- tion, “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (“Who will guard the guards them- It has


rarely had a more


contemporary ring than in the last week as the full scale of corruption and wrongdoing involving an unholy cabal of policemen and journalists has emerged into view. But this is also a crisis in that it is a funda-


mental break in the unwritten covenant between the British people and what used to be regarded as the pillars of our society. In the last few years, bankers, politicians (think of MPs’ expenses and broken manifesto prin- ciples) and the Fourth Estate are all seen to have betrayed the trust that people used to have in them. You can add in Catholic priests, pension providers, public utilities, doctors (Dr Shipman casts a long shadow) and those


in charge of care of the elderly. Perhaps the case of corrupt policemen arouses the most distaste. They are, after all, the guards (in Ireland that’s what the police are called). By contrast, people’s level of con- fidence in journalists and politicians has never been particularly high. Indeed, there is some- thing particularly hypocritical about the press and politicians sanctimoniously turning on each other when we all know how symbiotic


 


       


 


    


       


4 | THE TABLET | 16 July 2011


     


 





   


 


 


   


 


 


 


 


 


 


    


 


 





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