Successful leaders are trusted by those who follow them. So various studies that show declining trust in Government and MPs – in other words, the sort of dissatisfaction that is helping to drive the UKIP charge – remain a major concern for the political establishment.

What can be done?

There are plenty of ways to build trust, but three core themes stand out. Tell the truth and keep your word, which means not overpromising. Be transparent and open at all times, which means opening the closet door and releasing some skeletons. And don’t be self-serving; you have to give a lot in order to build trust.

The trouble is, these worthy traits fly in the face of the characteristics necessary to get elected in the first place: bold promises, a squeaky clean track record and enormous personal ambition. Perhaps politicians can never be trusted?

If that’s the case, maybe the best politicians can hope for is to forget being trusted per se and focus on being relatively more trusted than their opponents.

This approach underpins a study from the Local Government  Association this week. It shows 77% of people trust their local council most to make decisions about their local area, while 13% have more trust in the Government to do so. The research demonstrates a (relative) belief in local democracy, endorses the role of councils and councillors and (as intended) supports the argument of local government that power needs to be devolved. It makes a good case. But, the key factor is about the framing of the question. The survey looks at relative trust within very particular parameters.

Established political parties and candidates increasingly take exactly this approach. “We can be more trusted that them on the health service … We can be more trusted than them on the economy”. Emerging parties take a broader approach – UKIP plays the anti-establishment card to define an approach to all issues and the Lib Dems once took a similar line. But, once you’re in government and start to build a track record, broad trust is almost inevitably undermined by failure and disillusionment.

It’s a bit depressing. And to compound the pessimism, a report from the Pew Research Centre in the US suggests younger people are even less trusting in general than older social groups. Only 19% of young adults between 18 and 33 believe that “most people can be trusted,” compared to 40 percent of Baby Boomers and 31 percent of Generation X.

Perhaps younger people will grow to trust over time. But the compartmentalised, relative approach to trust that defines short term political strategy isn’t likely to support that change. At some point, a decline in absolute trust undermines the legitimacy of Government and our version of democracy. For the long term, truthfulness, transparency and commitment to public service are the only strategies for those who support holistic party-politics.