Leadership Quote by Francis Maude

Trust is framed here less as a moral reward than as a political technology: do the right thing, stop playing for applause, and credibility accumulates. Maude’s phrasing is deceptively plain, but it’s doing a lot of reputational cleanup work. The key move is the contrast between “what we think is right” and “point-score,” a jab at the Westminster habit of treating governance as permanent cross-examination. “Point-score” evokes the tribal dopamine hit of a clever line in the chamber or a headline-friendly zinger; it’s politics as sport, where the immediate win matters more than the long-term record.

The subtext is that public cynicism isn’t irrational or media-manufactured; it’s earned. By positioning trust as something “people will begin” to grant, Maude admits it’s currently absent and that it returns only gradually. That little “begin” is a tacit concession to scandal fatigue, spin, and the sense that politicians are incentivized to perform rather than decide.

Context matters because Maude isn’t speaking as an outsider scolding the system; he’s a product of it, and that gives the line an almost managerial tone. “If we do” reads like an internal memo to colleagues: stop feeding the short-term cycle, prioritize judgments you can defend when the cameras are gone. It’s also a preemptive defense against accusations of opportunism: the speaker aligns himself with seriousness, implying that opponents are the ones chasing points. The brilliance is that it flatters voters as referees while quietly asking for patience.