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There's no doubt about it: trust is a precious commodity.

When the Labour party came to power in 1997, they pledged a new era in British politics, free from the sleaze which characterised the Major years. But of course, before long Labour were embroiled in controversy over donations made by F1 supremo Bernie Eccleston. And so it went on, most notoriously with that dossier on Iraq.

And then over recent months, the coalition have had to fend off controversy over links to News International and other news publishers (not to mention the question as to whether Chris Huhne really did ask his wife to take the rap for his speeding ticket).

Perhaps one of the major challenges our society faces is the widespread lack of trust in our elected representatives.

And it's not just about politicians. The reason that the Rio Ferdinand story was decreed to be 'in the public interest' is that he was appointed England captain in place of John Terry, in the wake of the latter's affair, which was deemed to be inappropriate conduct for someone occupying such a prominent position. Turns out that our Rio wasn't so squeaky clean either ...

 Finally got round to watching 'The King's speech'. Glad I did - thought it was a good film, well-made and brilliantly acted. Quite apart from all the grown-ups, casting Ramona Marquez (Karen, in Outnumbered) as the young Princess Margaret seemed an inspired choice.

The film has a number of strong story lines. The contrast between the stammering, socially awkward Bertie (Colin Firth) and his older brother and party animal David (Guy Pearce) was striking. David (briefly, Edward VIII) was all suave sophistication. And yet, it was Bertie who courageously battled his speech impediment and stepped up to the throne (becoming George VI) when David chose to abdicate rather than abandon his love for Wallis Simpson.

I don't know whether it was deliberate. If it was intentional, then it was bold piece of scheduling which led Channel 4 to broadcast the film 'Four lions' just a week or so before the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

In case you've not seen it or heard anything about the film, it's a satirical look at the world of radical Islam and suicide bombers. That bare description may be enough to put you off - you might feel that there are some subjects which are too important or too raw to be treated as a source of comedy.

 Here's the quote from Brennan Manning (in 'A glimpse of Jesus'), which I referred to this morning:

"Jesus perceived that the only way to help people experience life as gracious gift, the only way to help them to prize themselves as grace and treasure, was to treat them as treasure and be gracious to them. I can be anointed, prayer over, sermonized to, dialogued with, and exposed to God's unconditional love in books, tracts, and tapes, but this marvellous revelation will fall on ears that do not hear and eyes that do not see, unless some other human being refresh the weariness of my defeated days. Barring prevenient grace, we humans simply will not accept our life and being as God's gracious gift unless someone values us. 'We can only sense ourselves and our world valued and cherished by God when we feel valued and cherished by others' (quoting James P Mackey)."

There is profound truth here, it seems to me - and a vital clue as to how it is that we fulfill our calling to bring blessing to the world.

I don't remember where I read it but it seemed funny at the time. One character says to his rather neurotic/paranoid friend: 'when I asked you where you were when Kennedy was shot, it wasn't an accusation.'

With that in mind, do you remember where you were on the afternoon of 11 September 2001? I have quite vivid memories of watching events unfold, on the TV in our bedroom (because the boys were watching children's TV downstairs). There was something awfully compelling about the coverage, especially as the scale of the carnage became clear, and reports of other hi-jackings started to come in.

Of course, much has been said about these events in the intervening years, including the almost-mandatory conspiracy theories. One documentary suggested that the level of destruction far exceeded what was expected by the perpetrators - they didn't anticipate the collapse of the towers. I don't know why, but this seems particularly disturbing. When disaster strikes, there is often some comfort in the thought that 'it could have been worse'. When it comes to the destruction of the WTC, it's hard to see any truth in that.

I'm currently reading 'The end of the party: the rise and fall of New Labour', written by Andrew Rawnsley. Not the kind of thing I usually go for - plus it's over 700 pages of small text! The fact that I'm still gripped by it about 3/4 of the way through is testament to the abilities of the author. It's a gripping tale, very well-written, extensively researched - but the sources are used very well, even where several quotes are stitched together in one paragraph.

Like many other people, I suspect, I've enjoyed watching the Brian Cox series on Sunday nights. By the very nature of things, much of what is presented is fairly mind-boggling, in terms of the distances, time spans and sheer size of everything. Cox does a pretty good job of making some difficult concepts understandable, and the whole thing looks pretty good too. I'm not sure why the latest programme had a segment of Cox playing piano in some wrecked building somewhere (an old jail in Brazil?), but it looked and sounded cool. I'm sure that there are downsides to Cox's life, but it must be satisfying to have a big enough brain to comprehend all this stuff, some pretty nifty musical talent, and the opportunity to film a TV series in all manner of exotic locations.

Once a month, I spend a few hours wandering the streets of Bath on a Friday night/Saturday morning, in my role as a Street Pastor. The idea is that we go out in teams of four or five, looking out for people who might need help - to sober up, to find their friends, to get medical treatment - or just needing someone to talk to.

Our 'strapline' is 'Listening, caring, helping' - and it struck me again on Friday night just how important is the first of those verbs: listening. We don't go out with any particular agenda - we seek to respond to what we see and notice - and especially, to what people say to us. We're not looking to impose anything on anyone. We try not to make assumptions about what people may or may not need (although there are times when we have to do that).

Over the past year or so, I've made three discoveries which have had significant impact on me: 'Getting things done' by David Allen, Dropbox, and Spotify. Credit for the first two goes to a certain web designer ...

It's the third of these which has enabled me to embark on the 'musical journey' referred to above. In case you don't know, Spotify is a music streaming site - and (if you don't mind the occasional ad) it's free! How long it will remain so is open to question.

Anyway, with the aid of Spotify, over the coming year, I am aiming to listen to the '1001 albums you must hear before you die'. I was given the book of that name a few years back and immediately went through and ticked the albums I'd either got or had already listened to (around 200). Since then, I've dipped into it occasionally. But now I'm working my way through it, and making some interesting discoveries as I do so.

Spent last week 'on retreat' - not running away, but just taking a step back from all the busy-ness, to give some time to reading, prayer, silence (as well as chat), and walking the countryside just outside Cirencester.

It was a good week, with lots to think about and some good insights into what makes me tick. The challenge (as always) is to hold on to those things and to follow through on some at least of the thoughts and ideas.

I've been reflecting on an incident which occurred while I was away - something I suspect no-one else noticed - not really an 'incident', even. But I found it very moving.

The programme for the first morning included 'worship'. And so we duly gathered to sing and pray, the usual thing. The worship was led by one of the team members, someone I remembered from the last time I went. He began in a rather faltering way, referring to a radio programme which he mis-named, lots of um's and ah's (and a curious verbal tic of repeating the word 'actually'). He introduced the first song and started to play the piano.