Chris Evans, UK National Coordinator, CIB says 'Perhaps the biggest current question of all: can we trust Bush and Blair if they tell us there is no alternative to invading Iraq? Trust can be a life and death matter. Fortunately, the process is reversible'.

It's been a bad time for trust.

Some years ago, business leaders were to be admired. They created wealth and jobs. They drove development forwards. Sure, some were a bit greedy, but the inherent transparency of the market would look after most of that, and meanwhile the goose was laying golden eggs. I did not share the foreboding of some, as Reagan and Thatcher gave free enterprise its head. Even if there were some losers, there would be more winners. I trusted.

Today I trust less. For example, I do not believe Monsanto when it assures us that its GM products are all harmless. I have no scientific basis for this, and I would like to believe them. But I no longer assume that companies or governments will hold back from outright deception. Ten years ago, I did. The half-truths of politics and PR, I was well aware of. But I believed that political and business leaders had too much to lose for public, demonstrable lies. Sadly, no more.

For a while I felt that at least our financial reporting system was objective and factual - a bulwark against all the smoke and mirrors. No accountancy firm could afford to wave through deception and malpractice. Enough said!

Perhaps the biggest current question of all: can we trust Bush and Blair if they tell us there is no alternative to invading Iraq? Trust can be a life and death matter.

Fortunately, the process is reversible.

When Shell proposed to sink the Brent Spar oil platform in the Atlantic, they said it was the least damaging way to dispose of it. Few believed them. Their products were boycotted and the company was forced to change its mind. Later we discovered that Shell was right all along. To their credit, they set out to regain public trust by talking with their critics and setting in motion a thorough review of company values and procedures. Enlightened self-interest? Certainly. Shell is careful not to claim perfection. But the change process seems real, and if ever deception or hypocrisy could be substantiated, it would be all over the media. I find I trust Shell more than I used to, and I look forward to more organisations joining this category.

Recently I talked with a high-profile and effective advocate of more principled business leadership. She says she is concentrating on putting forward the business case for this, even if her own motivation is largely moral and humanitarian. We agreed that by doing this she could strengthen the hand of others who shared her motivation, but needed to win the argument within their organisations. She deserves every encouragement. But some will also need to open up less familiar ground.

The last time the pendulum swung decisively in the direction of trust in my own country, Britain, was some 200 years ago. It was linked with a deep spiritual renewal, sometimes called the Wesleyan revival, and the process took over a century. Wesley and his followers made no bones about how corrupted British society had become. They practised and advocated radical personal conversion, followed as a consequence by committed, reforming citizenship. Structural changes in society followed. Good laws were passed because vested interests were weakened and could not prevent it. Enough people shared the values that gave rise to these reforms to make trust a viable option - a kind of default position in the absence of evidence to the contrary. For all its enduring faults, Britain was changed for the better.

Today things move so much faster, that what took 150 years then could now happen in 20. And it would have to be global. If we want a rebirth of trust, and all that goes with it, where else is there to look?

Chris Evans is UK National Coordinator, CIB

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