Here’s the link to my latest Telegraph Blog piece on Trust, Sovereignty and Reality:

Let’s agree that we need more Trust. How in fact to get it? Can it be "built" or "rebuilt" by clever leaders? Or does it emerge in a mysterious, organic, bottom-up way?

One of Europe’s most engaging high-level fixers is Javier Solana. He sees the answer in getting rid of some old-fashioned notions (my emphasis added):

On the European level, legitimacy is essential and – let’s be realistic – won’t be achieved unless and until Europeans overcome certain antiquated ideas about sovereignty… Citizens must have the feeling that the institutions that govern them account for their interests and make them part of the decision-making process, which implies a union based on rules rather than power.

Note the subtle phrasing which tips us over the edge of a slippery slope, away from democracy as hitherto developed. We need to become comfortably numb, "feeling" that the institutions governing us account for our interests and make us part of the decision-making process. Who cares whether in fact those institutions do just that?

Read the Comments. This one is my very favourite:

Commenter's avatar

barryobarma

Yesterday 03:58 AM

Welcome back Charles, the Rolls Royce of DT Bloggers
And this one from stevex engages on the philosophical level:

03/16/2012 06:53 PM

Maybe this is putting things the wrong way around. People "trust" when there are institutions backing them up – when, if their trust is misplaced, there is some mechanism for redress. Even if it proves illusory as in real life it may, the idea that there is a court of last resort gives people the opportunity to trust. It is is what is missing in most of the world in political and economic spheres, and what creates the opportunities for corruption so visible in some societies.

Of course the Europhiles would like this to operate at a supranational level, and there are some instances elsewhere where it really does happen. The WTO mostly seems to work, even if it can takes generations to work through, as it sometimes does: Australia’s reluctance to allow New Zealand apples into its market is a case in point. But generally, supranational forms of redress are window dressing for power politics, or the politics of powerlessness vide the General Assembly of the UN. In Europe people don’t trust EU institutions because they are untrustworthy; the evidence that these institutions might right wrongs is weak, but there is plenty of evidence that they actually do harm, and this is not superficial. The "feelings" of people that the EU is untrustworthy may be inaccurate in a root-and-branch sense but the stench has nonetheless over time become nauseating for a great number of people.