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Good morning. With no shortage of candidates to replace Boris Johnson it’s a moment to think about our hopes from his successor. We’ve heard what some of the aspiring leaders would do to fix the economy – an urgent task - but there’s been less engagement with a deeper issue, which runs through the Western democratic world, and has to do with trust. In America it surfaced in the Watergate scandal and the subsequent pardoning of Richard Nixon. This sent the message that former presidents, even when proved guilty, were immune from punishment. Then there was the financial crisis of 2007 which led to a massive loss of trust in the banking system as we slowly realised how much of their success was built on the manipulation of debt. Profits spun from nothing – and we are still paying for it. And then there’s trust in public services – think of the police and the need to restore trust in the Met. In the Reith Lectures of 2002 Onora O’Neill spoke of a crisis of trust all through society. She pointed out how institutions have tried to solve this by introducing greater and greater levels of accountability. More forms to fill in, more boxes to be ticked. Safeguarding, risk assessments, all are meant to make us feel more confident. But the effort can prove counter-productive, as measures of accountability often contradict each other. The result? Everyone has a form fill in, or hide behind, and still nothing quite works. Trust is something we learn very early. Children need their parents to be reliable and can suffer for life if they are let down. Pupils need to accept the authority of teachers, but they learn only distrust if that authority is overbearing or unfair. We may enjoy the company of gossipy, flamboyant friends but the friends we need are those who are really there for us, solid as a rock. Trust is not something passive, but active. By becoming trustworthy ourselves we become worthy of trust. We haven’t always realised that it is we who need to make a moral effort here. To think about how we care for our families, make our tax returns, deal with debt and savings, even make wise choices from a range of options on power or broadband or car insurance. Trust is part of faith, too, to believe that the world is upheld by a transcendent order gives us confidence to trust and be trusted. Without trust, nothing can work. Onora O’Neill quotes Confucius telling a ruler that three things are needed for government: Weapons, food and trust. If you can’t hold on to all three, give up the weapons first and the food next. Without trust, she concludes, we simply cannot stand.