Mal Fletcher comments

In the end, they have succeeded only in breeding a sense of public unease, a suspicion that if spin can be used to help justify a war, it can also be employed to sell the ideas like human-sourced global warming.

In all spheres of leadership, including business, politics and science, there comes a time for declaring the way forward, articulating the vision and marking out the strategy for the future.

But if leaders expect their people to feel a sense of ownership of and loyalty to decisions taken, they must allow people into the decision-making process. Some of leadership is, of necessity, top-down, unilateral and fast-moving, but much of it is middle-up, based on consensus and more deliberative.

Even where unilateral decisions must be made, leaders help themselves when they explain their thinking, openly, honestly and as quickly as possible after the event.

Aligned with the ability to handle dissent is a willingness to take responsibility for the failure of decisions taken.

A graph featured in The Times more than a year ago tracked the number of incidences of certain key words in its news and editorials from 1985 to the present.

Predictably, one of the most oft-used words in that time was 'terrorism' which showed a sharp peak in 2001.

The line on the graph that I found most interesting, though, was the one representing the word 'sorry' as spoken by public figures. It followed a sharp and steady incline.

As politics becomes more personality-driven, it seems people want their leaders to take responsibility and to show that they take seriously the idea of accountability.

The ability to handle dissent, integrating opposing views, along with a solemn commitment to accountability is especially vital with decisions which will have a national or global impact.

In a world of rapid change and technology that makes the global local, we need leaders who will allow and even encourage healthy dissent; where the disagreement is based not on an anarchistic drive to destroy people in power, but a sincere desire to move society forward in a positive direction.