Mal Fletcher comments on the leadership of Brexit.

In the words of a BBC presenter who interviewed me earlier this week, it's a bit like we're signing up to a social media service without reading the fine print. Looking at the current data-protection records of groups like Facebook and Google, we all know how well that turns out for the user!

The rush toward a resolution makes people very suspicious about the motives of the EU. This institution has made many lofty pronouncements about championing democracy in the world. In recent decades, however, it demonstrated an inclination to ignore democratic votes if they interfere with its centrally-devised strategic objectives.

In the case of Brexit, the EU has sometimes made emollient noises toward the British populace, while fairly obviously trying to push the UK into a corner. It is openly sending a message to countries like Poland that a divorce from the EU comes at a hefty price.

From the British perspective, if this deal is passed by Parliament amidst widespread public confusion, we'll end up trusting our own political classes even less than we do today.

Trust in politicians remains somewhere near an all-time low.

This was reflected in the global trust survey conducted again this year by the Edelman communications group. The survey of 33,000 people in 28 nations, measured relative levels of trust between citizens and major public institutions, such as media, business and government.

The 2018 results were instructive for the UK. Only 36 percent of Brits trust government and its administration. This compares with 63 percent who say they trust the mainstream media. In a press release following last year's survey, Edelman said that levels of trust were at an all-time low. Many nations, it said, face a "crisis of trust". This is true of the UK.

In the face of this, the British government continues to ask for blind trust from the electorate. This is the only deal we'll get, it seems to suggest, so trust us to make it work.

Trust, however, is not blind. It is informed by performance and strengthened by accessibility.

Prime Minister Theresa May and her negotiating team - if not her cabinet - might well have done the best deal possible in very constrained circumstances. They may or may not have practised good management. Yet they appear to have omitted one important aspect of leadership - the ability to bring people with them on the journey.

Mrs. May's position is an unenviable one, to be sure. Feelings among the wider population are divided on the very idea of Brexit, often bitterly so. Leadership demands the ability to display resilience, sharpness of focus and stubbornness of purpose. These are all qualities Mrs May has in abundance - and they're very handy in the face of a negotiation as complex as this.

They must, however, be married to a common touch. This is the area in which British government leaders have failed thus far. People do not feel that they are either well informed or engaged.

This is not to say that we should hold a second Brexit referendum. On the contrary, as I've written elsewhere, a second vote, were it to place no-Brexit on the menu, would present grave challenges to British democracy going forward.

A second Brexit vote, if it offered to overthrow the 2016 referendum, would leave a great proportion of the population asking: "When does any vote represent the final vote on anything?"