'Trust - How We Lost It and How To Get It Back', published by BiteBack, October 2009

In this first serious response to the era of post financial and political meltdown, best-selling author and social and political commentator Anthony Seldon lays out a blueprint for regaining trust within the national life. In the absence of coherent political leadership on vital social issues, Trust looks beyond politics to deliver a deeply considered and exhaustively researched recipe for social harmony and individual wellbeing.

Click here to see Anthony Seldon talking about trust at 'Battle of Ideas' event, 'Trust in an Age of Cynicism', in October 2010.

20 Proposals from Trust

• National community service for one year for all at 18
• The Church of England to have a Reformation after 500 years to reboot it
• Every city to have a mayor, and every county to have a governor
• ‘Positive policing’ to be adopted by the police, with the balance tilted decisively towards deterrence
• All leaders – political, financial, military, etc – to spend five minutes each day in absolute silence
• Annual prize-givings in each locality for those with the highest trust footprints
• The House of Lords to be replaced by a Senate directly elected by proportional representation
• The NHS to champion ‘positive health’, i.e. promoting healthy living, rather than illness treatment
• All children to have 10 hours of sport a week: national sport to be subject to trust test
• Parks and green areas to be created on brownfield sites– minimum 20% of each city and town
• Journalism to become a profession with the same ethical standards as doctors
• Parliamentarians to pass a qualification of proficiency and ethical standards
• Schools to be about education again, and the factory school/drill ground approach to be ended
• Business and finance to be required to meet a rigorous annual Corporate and Social Responsibilty and CMR test
• 'Trust trading’ to be introduced: trust damaging actions must be balanced by trust positive actions
• Britain to take ‘trusteeship’ seriously and become the world’s leading clean energy provider
• Trust and reconciliation council to screen prisoners for amnesty for pledge not to re-offend
• Britain’s top 1000 role models to serve on panel as national exemplars for five years
• National awards ceremony for companies and institutions which build trust
• ‘Arts for all' – the arts to receive a massive boost regionally and locally