IN a month in which we’ve watched Australia burning through uncontrollable forest fires, it’s hardly surprising that people across the globe are fearful for their future.

The Australian PM delayed returning from his Christmas holiday and then, once back on dry land, prevaricated about the causes of the bushfires. It’s little wonder people feel concern when leaders turn a blind eye to their responsibilities on climate change and drag their heels on ethical economic action to combat this real and present danger.

Just this week, an annual trust and credibility survey, the Edelman Trust Barometer, revealed that none of the four societal institutions that its study measures – government, business, NGOs and media – is trusted, despite a strong global economy and high employment levels.

People are scared of what lies ahead. In a study of 34,000 respondents from more than 28 developed and undeveloped countries between October and November last year, this barometer of trust discovered that 56% of the global population think “capitalism as it exists today does more harm than good in the world”. This belief spanned all the age groups surveyed, with most responding that they do not have trust in institutions to handle the big crises we face, nor do they believe they will be better off in five years’ time. Even those in paid employment are concerned about job losses, recession, automation and stagnant wages.

READ MORE: A political system needs to be trusted if it is to survive

The Edelman Trust Barometer is measured by two distinctive attributes – competence (delivering on promises) and ethical behaviour (doing the right thing and working to improve society). “It is no longer only a matter of what you do – it’s also how you do it,” CEO Richard Edelman explains. The results indicate a growing sense of inequality and unfairness, with fears of manipulation by fake news from print and online media, self-interest in business and government and the widening gap between wealthy elites and normal people.

The results for the UK make for interesting, if unsurprising, reading, with British respondents’ mistrust of institutions at a 20-year high, and three-fifths of those surveyed declaring a loss of faith in democracy, fearing that government is just not up to the job. With Brexit looming and trade talks about to start, they’ve every right to feel this way. It’s hard to believe a word that comes out of Johnson’s government and it’s even harder to wade through the accompanying web of mistruths and distraction spewed forth from much of the press and into the darker recesses of the internet and social media.

What’s interesting to note is that this data for the trust barometer was collated during the General Election campaign and yet the great British public went on to commit a mystifying act of self-sabotage by voting in Johnson and his new stonking majority to wreak their Brexit havoc in any way they see fit, or, as they like to put it, “get Brexit done”.

Be careful what you wish for. I’m guessing that this time next year when the results of the next Edelman Trust Barometer are revealed, the British will be even more disillusioned with their leaders. Getting Brexit “done” will be just one of a series of promises from Johnson that will mean less than the value of our plummeting pound come this time next year, as we face ongoing turmoil for our economy and an ever-widening gap between rich and poor. If people don’t trust capitalism, just wait until they get a look at “disaster capitalism”, as favoured by the financiers behind Johnson and Farage’s Brexit plans.

While the powers that be keep on consuming and bolstering their wealthy buddies, refusing to stop and take account of this lack of trust in failed economic models, the rest of the world keeps on burning, melting and flooding in near-Biblical ways. When the leaders of the free world take the time to visit those afflicted by the climate crisis, they are met with a barrage of abuse for their failure to act, to wake up, to protect their citizens. Just look at the reception Scott Morrison received when he finally turned up to view the devastation of the inferno in New South Wales. The same can be said of Johnson when he eventually appeared at the flooding in South Yorkshire back in November, where he received a less than rapturous reception from those at the thin end of the wedge.

THE conundrum over why both Johnson and Morrison were voted in by people scared for their future is an issue that historians will mull over for decades to come. When trust is such a big stumbling block, why do people choose leaders like Johnson whose career record shows that he cannot be trusted on the most basic of levels, that he fears transparency, that he prefers division and rancour over working in collaboration and creating consensus?

In contrast, the Edelman Barometer concludes that only through working together, building partnerships between government, business, NGOs and the media, can we rebuild trust. It’s all about collaboration. While the UK Government may be in bed with certain sections of the media, it’s hardly a healthy relationship, and we all know what Johnson thinks about (expletive deleted) business – not really the positive collaboration Edelman has in mind.

If Scotland is daft enough to stay in the UK, we have five more years of Johnson. Australia has two and a half more years of Morrison. And, if Trump gets in for a second term this November, then it really will be a case of turkeys voting for Christmas. What a depressing way to start a new decade.