Highlighting the needy with Anthony Bernard.

Trust and truthfulness cannot be assumed in anything these days. Even BBC News has the programme "BBC Verify" on the News Channel, implying that basic news needs to be checked. It reminds me of our children buying a leather belt in a store in the USA years ago. There was a choice between "leather", "real leather", and "genuine real leather", which they found highly amusing.

Truth is the first casualty of war, which is a famous quotation. No Russian, Israeli, Palestinian or Iranian news report can be trusted; Ukraine avoids the issue by not saying much. Those uncertainties come before any doubts about reports from Trump Tower, the White House, Bute House, Downing Street or wherever.

The Post Office Inquiry shows the extent to which lawyers have double standards. Now we have the infected blood report showing that managers and elected politicians deliberately deceived and told lies over many years, under a variety of different political masters.

Times have changed. Years ago, we never trusted the weather reports, culminating in the Great Storm of 1987 which Michael Fish famously declared was not in his forecast. Then, we mostly trusted the news and politicians, but took weather forecasts with a pinch of salt. Now, when we are told there is a warm front coming through, we cheerfully believe it! Our meteorological skills have improved, our truthfulness and loyalty seem to have degraded. Most worrying is that the most senior decision makers seem prepared to fall in with a desire that things should look all right, when in fact they are not.

What can we, the people, actually do to combat this failure of trust, truth and integrity in the organisations which have come to dominate our world? The Post Office Inquiry has highlighted how trust was perverted at the top to make the organisation look good and avoid admitting faulty software. The contaminated blood inquiry uncovers lying and deception from American suppliers, NHS staff working under their Hippocratic oath, to politicians and civil servants, all of whom will have made a loyal oath to the then Queen.

In a long working life, I learnt that some managers become good at running the business they are in, but their next promotion would put them in charge of multiple branches. This is a totally different skill, organising multiple operations for the benefit of investors rather than running basic units relied on by customers and staff.

Politicians, civil servants and NHS managers have obviously been ready to tell whatever tale would best protect the organisation, not even for money, but just to keep friendly with bosses and colleagues. Who can we trust?

Good managers at a local level, whether managers in shops or care homes, ambulance supervisors, ward sisters in hospitals, or whatever, need to win the trust of their staff and customers.

Managing groups of businesses requires the confidence of investors, whose priority is profit, so failures are covered up. Negative publicity around sewage spills is damaging investment in our water companies; what is needed is more money, not less.

We must all behave ourselves, so that there is plenty of prison space when some rich and powerful people come before the bench, as may happen! Meanwhile, locally run stores, care homes, farmers and tradesmen deserve our custom, along with all others who have a visibly trusted and trusting relationship with staff and customers.