An unhelpful feature of modern political life is that politicians have lost the trust of their electorates. This problem is serious for democracy and is not just confined to Scotland or the UK. There are many reasons but a significant element is because we do not believe our political leaders tell the truth.
First, let’s define what truth is. It is much more than not telling lies. Really telling the truth means presenting a situation in a clear and fair way, not missing out key facts and neither reordering nor bending them. The test should be that a reasonable person would reach the same understanding as you are trying to convey if they had all the facts needed to make their own judgement.
I am not sure if any politician has ever passed this test. Margaret Thatcher? Harold MacMillan? Oliver Cromwell? They were all spinners to a degree but spinning was brought to an art form by Tony Blair’s Government. The same spending presented as new over and over again, targets set and then manipulated shelved or changed, etc. etc.
This process is one of the reasons why the Atlantic Alliance, EU and UK are in trouble. We cannot quite put our finger on a specific lie but we know we are not receiving a fair picture. Scots look at the leaderships in the US, EU and UK and do not trust them. Nicola Sturgeon in contrast feels more like one of us, the local lass from Ayrshire, speaks like us, knows the town where we live. This allows her to get away with an awful lot.
The unfortunate thing is that business is learning the same bad habit. Facts are selected, ordered and spun to give an impression which ranges from a bit too positive to downright false. A particular problem is the new digital world of tweets, crowdfunding and oh-so-beautiful websites designed to project momentum - a business on the move, an entrepreneur, a success, high value - but which are vacuums when it comes to facts.
The maker of the Ultimo bra, MJM International, led the way in Scotland, a masterclass in self-publicity which one can only admire. The company was actually quite small, not successful over a sustained period and now swallowed up by another. Careful press releases, shifting business forms and a move into politics by its founder gave an impression of scale and success which was some way ahead of any objective assessment.
Now we have the example of Brewdog - an undoubted success - but which has led an admiring and unquestioning media to report that it is valued at £1 billion. Suppose you put £100 into a company and later sell 15% of it for £150 - is the value of your company now £1,000? Well, almost certainly not. You are £50 ahead in cash but if the person who bought 15% of the company has special economic and other rights which give it a privileged position relative to your remaining 85% then the value of that residual shareholding is worth less, potentially much less, than 85% of £1,000. Too complex and unhelpful a message - possibly, but why can’t a real success story rest on a fairer presentation of facts? Brewdog’s recent deal does not value it at £1 billion
If business does not want to suffer as politicians have in terms of public trust it has got to do better.
Pinstripe is a senior member of Scotland's financial services community
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