Yves here. George Georgiou has returned, this time with a look at the UK’s carefully cultivated brand image versus reality. Admittedly, some who are at closer range have a good handle on British character. Recall when one vision of Brexit was “Singapore on Thames”? Many understood that to be “Pirates ahoy!”
By George Georgiou, an economist who for many years worked at the Central Bank of Cyprus in various senior roles, including Head of Governor’s Office during the financial crisis
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” – Marcellus
“That one may smile and smile and be a villain” – Hamlet
(Act 1, Hamlet)
Some Very British (and not so British) Scandals
All imperial powers eventually wither away. Some through war, some through economic decline, some as a result of a smorgasbord of internal contradictions, and most through a combination of these. But even long after a state’s primacy has crumbled, the ruling class perpetuates myths designed to maintain a semblance of importance and respect.
By the time of WWII, Britain had already ceased to be the hegemonic imperial power, replaced by America. But the myth of a civilising, fair minded and just country to be admired, and even replicated, by the emerging democracies (often former British colonies) continued to be cultivated by the British establishment. Whether in politics, business or sport, the notion of fairness, of being honourable and of playing by the rules were widely accepted as being part of UK culture. Until recently, when scandals (including corruption in public life), were exposed they were considered an aberration from the norm. The media played an important role in juxtaposing ‘clean’ Britain with other countries where all sorts of nefarious activities were common. Even today, some nationalist inclined commentators still hold up Britain as an example of good governance with relatively little political corruption compared with other countries. However, a cursory look at history confirms what delusional nonsense this was/is. Far from being an aberration, corruption in modern Britain dates back to British capitalism’s very beginnings. Think, for example, of the rotten (or pocket) boroughs in the 18th century.
The myth of a clean, fair and honourable Britannia gained traction in the 19th century. For example, in sport the so-called ‘gentleman’s game’ of cricket was used as an example of ethical behaviour. The metaphor “It’s not cricket”, which dates back to mid-19th century England, was used (and still is sometimes) to admonish unsportsmanlike behaviour, not just in sporting activities but also in politics, business and life in general. The irony is that W.G. Grace, the iconic cricketer whose playing career extended from 1869 to 1908, and is still considered to be one of England’s greatest players, was known for his ‘gamesmanship’(euphemism for cheating) and the fact that, although an amateur, made more money from the game than the professional players. He was considered a loveable rascal, probably in the way that some in the Conservative Party and Tory press considered Boris Johnson before all the pathological lying and infantile buffoonery eventually caught up with him. Which brings us to the modern era of political corruption.
Using the mid-1980s as the starting point of the modern era (partly because it is within living memory of most readers), the number of political scandals has been growing. The fourteen years of Tory Party rule elevated political corruption and ineptitude to new heights. But prior to Tory rule, the Labour Party had its fair share of scandals as well. Furthermore, many of the transgressions in British public life have occurred outside the narrow confines of Westminster and have involved municipal government, the police and the Royal Family. Below is a list of some of the scandals stretching back to the 1980s.
1985 : Al-Yamamah scandal involving BAE and defence contract bribes
1987-89: Homes for votes scandal in Westminster Council
1994 : Cash-for-questions affair involving the Tory MP Neil Hamilton, and others
1997 : Bernie Ecclestone affair involving a large donation to the Labour Party
1998 : Peter Mandelson, Labour Government minister, involving a £373.000 loan
2006 : David Mills, husband of Labour Government minister, involving a £340.000 loan
2006 : Cash-for-honours scandal involving the Prime Minister, Tony Blair
2009 : Cash-for-influence involving the Labour Party
2009 : UK parliamentary expenses scandal involving, mostly, the two main parties
2010 : Scandal involving the expenses claims of Lib Democrat minister, David Laws
2012 : Cash-for-access scandal involving Tory MP, Peter Cruddas
2016-17: Alleged bribery of Prince Charles’ Foundation by wealthy Saudi national
2016-20: Fraudulent investments of several hundred million pounds by Thurrock Council
2019-22: Various unethical expenses involving Boris Johnson and Tory Party donors
2020-22: Covid related PPE contracts awarded to politically connected companies
2021 : Greensill lobbying scandal involving former Prime Minister, David Cameron
2021 : Paid advocacy scandal involving the Tory MP, Owen Patterson
2013-23: Royal Duchy of Lancaster bona vacantia scandal
2023 : Securing of immunity from prosecution in Wales for Buckingham Palace
2016-24: £8.4 billion in contracts given to companies linked to Tory Party donors
2020-24: Conflict of interest involving Sunak and his father-in-law’s company, Infosys
2024 : The election betting scandal.
This list is merely indicative. A full list would require a couple of pages, at least.
The Sewers Stink
From the above list, there are three cases worth considering in more detail since they give a flavour of the broad spectrum of corruption that is prevalent in Britain.
THE PPE SCANDAL
During the Covid pandemic, the British government purchased billions of pounds worth of personal protection equipment (PPE). It transpired that a significant amount of this equipment was faulty or inappropriate for the needs of hospitals. Furthermore, much of it was purchased at inflated prices and from companies which had connections to the Conservative Party and/or had no previous experience in sourcing PPE products.
In April 2021, Transparency International published a report, Track and Trace, which reviewed nearly 1.000 Covid related contracts worth £18 billion. The report identified:
….73 contracts worth more than £3.7 billion, equivalent to 20 percent of COVID-19 contracts between February and November 2020, that raise one or more red flags for possible corruption….Our analysis of the available evidence is consistent with there being systemic bias towards those with connections to the party of government in Westminster….
The key findings were, quote:
• “Contracts awarded to companies with political connections: Twenty-four PPE contracts worth £1.6 billion were awarded to those with known political connections to Conservative Party. Three contracts worth £536 million went to politically connected companies for testing related services”. (my italics)
• “Contracts awarded without competition: Between February and November 2020, 98.9 percent of COVID-19 related contracts by value (£17.8 billion) were awarded without any form of competition, many without adequate justification” (my italics)
• “Contracts awarded to companies with no track record of supplying goods or services: Fourteen companies incorporated in 2020 received contracts worth more than £620 million, of which 13 contracts totalling £255 million went to 10 firms that were less than 60 days old”. (my italics)
Following the findings of parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, that £4 billion of unusable PPE was purchased in the first year of the pandemic, the Chair of the Committee, Meg Hillier, stated the following in June 2022:
The story of PPE purchasing is perhaps the most shameful episode in the UK government response to the pandemic…..the government splurged huge amounts of money, paying obscenely inflated prices and payments to middlemen in a chaotic rush during which they chucked out even the most cursory due diligence. This has left us with massive public contracts now under investigation by the National Crime Agency or in dispute because of allegations of modern slavery in the supply chain. (my italics)
A later report by the National Audit Office covering the period 2020-2022, and published in January 2023, found that a total of £15 billion had been wasted on unusable, overpriced and undelivered PPE.
THE ROYAL DUCHY OF LANCASTER SCANDAL
In 2023, The Guardian revealed that the Duchy of Lancaster, which belongs to the reigning monarch, had benefited from the financial assets of people who died intestate. Under an antiquated system, whose origins date back to feudal times, when a deceased person living in the Duchy is intestate their financial assets are collected by the Duchy and, after deducting for costs, the revenues are supposedly distributed to charities. However, the Guardian journalists examined the accounts of the Duchy and found that only 15% of these funds, known as bona vacantia, ended up with charities. Instead, the remaining 75% were used by the Duchy to repair buildings on its estate. The buildings included farmhouses, cottages, holiday homes, etc, all used by the Duchy for, essentially, commercial purposes.
The Duchy covers a large area comprising 44.748 acres of land in rural parts of Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Cumbria and other parts of North West England. The Duchy also owns a significant portfolio of properties in the Savoy area (off the Strand in London) as well as a portfolio of financial investments. The Guardian also revealed that over the 10-year period, 2013-2023, the Duchy received about £60 million in bona vacantia. And since inheriting the Duchy from the Queen, King Charles had, at the time of The Guardian article, already received £26 million in revenues from the Duchy, although it is not clear whether this includes the bona vacantia. Note that neither the Duchy of Lancaster nor the Duchy of Cornwall (owned by Prince William) pay capital gains tax or corporation tax.
THE ELECTION BETTING SCANDAL
On 22 May, Rishi Sunak stood in the rain outside 10 Downing Street, looking like a cross between a vexed 6th form school prefect and Norman Wisdom, and announced that there would be a general election on 4 July. No one expected the announcement since it was generally believed that the election would be held in the autumn. The announcement annoyed many in Sunak’s party and generated a lot of discussion in the MSM. But the surprise of the announcement was surpassed by what was subsequently revealed in the media.
On 12 June, The Guardian carried a report that the Gambling Commission was investigating Craig Williams, a Tory MP and Sunak’s parliamentary private secretary, for possible infringement of the 2005 Gambling Act. Williams had placed a £100 bet with Ladbrokes on 19 May, three days before Sunak’s announcement, that an election would take place in July. Under section 42 of the Gambling Act, it is illegal to benefit from a bet using insider information. Initially, the MSM played down the report but as the days passed, more revelations began appearing in the media involving Conservative Party staff, Tory and Labour politicians as well as policemen.
At the time of writing, the following had been or were being investigated by the Gambling Commission:
• Craig Williams, MP—Sunak’s former parliamentary private secretary. Tory Party withdrew support.
• Tony Lee—Tory Party’s Director of Campaigning. Took leave of absence.
• Laura Saunders (Lee’s wife)—Tory Party candidate. Tory Party withdrew support.
• Nick Mason—Tory Party’s Chief Data Officer. Took leave of absence.
• Russell George, Tory member of the Welsh parliament.
• Kevin Craig, Labour Party candidate, lobbyist and donor. Bet on himself losing.
• Unnamed Metropolitan police protection officer and part of Sunak’s security team. Arrested and under investigation.
• Five unnamed police officers.
Apart from the above individuals, Alister Jack, the then Secretary of State for Scotland, admitted he had placed a bet on the timing of the election but has not been investigated. One newspaper alleged that Sir Philip Davies, Conservative Party candidate for Shipley, placed a bet of £8.000 that he would lose. He refused to confirm or deny the allegation.
Closing Remarks
The three examples above are no worse than many of the myriad other cases we could have focused on. Indeed, there are other more sordid examples. They are simply a representative sample of recent cases [1].
Much has been written about Britain’s decay; specifically, the economic decline, the rise in inequality, the crisis in the National Health Service, the crumbling infrastructure, etc. Although political corruption often gets mentioned, there is still an image of Britain as relatively clean. For example, in Transparency International’s 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index, the UK was ranked joint 20th with Austria, France and the Seychelles[2]. This perception doesn’t reflect the extent of Albion’s rot.
Notes:
[1] For details on some of the other cases, not all recent, see the following:
Al-Yamaha arms deal
https://corruption-tracker.org/case/al-yamamah-arms-deals
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/24/al-yamamah-arms-deal-report- discovery-anti-corruption-mod-nao-britain-saudi-arabia
Homes for votes scandal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homes_for_votes_scandal
Blair’s cash-for-honours scandal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash-for-Honours_scandal
Parliamentary expenses scandal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_parliamentary_expenses_scandal
Thurrock Council investment scandal
https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2024-03-08/thurrock-launches-fraud-claim-against-businessman-behind-councils-disastrous-deals/
Sunak’s conflict of interests
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/03/uk-pm-rishi-sunaks-conflicts-of-interest-are-by-now-too-big-to-ignore.html
[2] For a critical assessment of the Corruption Perceptions Index see:
https://cypruseconomicsociety.org/transparency-internationals-corruption-perceptions-index-whats-wrong-with-it-and-can-it-be-fixed/
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/corruption-perception-index-does-not-give-the-whole-picture-by-yuen-yuen-ang-2024-03
50 comments
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Nice reading. I was hoping to see two other scandals:
1. ‘Post Office’ issue, which I see coming up in my TL from time to time
2. Thames Water. But I think that would require a whole thread, like the Uber Files series
3. Blood transfusion infections: UK only now getting round to the kind of compensation scheme available in Ireland since 1996.
4. Credit default swap insolvencies among small businesses: 15 years and counting, but no resolution in sight.
5. Slave owner compensation 1833.
It’s difficult to decide what to include and what to exclude. I just wanted a list that was indicative rather than comprehensive. Maybe one day someone will compile a full list starting from post-WWII.
Yeah, it’s like the US sponsored coup d’etat list I try to keep, the closer you look the more you find!
Such rich veins to dig into!
Absolutely the Post Office scandal which started under the Tony Blair regime and took two decades to unwind-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Post_Office_scandal
Thank you, Rev.
Blair ordered a cover up to protect Fujitsu ICL, so that the firm would invest more in the UK.
Speaking of Blair, his elder son, in partnership with Sunak, is hoping to get some NHS IT contracts.
From the premise “Sunak is not stupid” (well…) I concluded that early elections were purposely favoring Labour, as it is in “good hands” now while Tory need few years to put the house in order. Waiting till Autumn would allow malcontent forces to organize better.
Perhaps something similar happened in France, but I know too little. Seems that hastily organized Left is 50+ percent pro-establishment inthe new Parliament, think of Labour after Starmerian purge, and after some theatrics, Macron will get majority. Time will tell.
Well, it has been suggested that Sunak threw the election like it was a flaming bobcat on meth.
It seems reasonable to surmise that the record of evident corruption described in regard to the covid PPE scandal is directly related to the relationship to Government Ministers of those receiving such largess.
Certainly, personal relationships – some of them likely longstanding – will be a factor. However, such processes are not generated in a vacuum. As the PFI model demonstrates lobbying will be by far the largest factor in the corrupt misuse of public funds for private gain.
In that regard it is an odds on certainty that this will be repeated on a much grander scale by what passes for a change in UK Government given the facts laid out in the article in this URL link:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/lovebombed-by-lobbyists-how-starmer-labour-became-the-party-of-big-business/
The more things “Change” the more things stay the same.
So you don‘t fancy Ernest Marples as Transport Minister commissioning Beeching Axe to close railways to benefit his road-building business and then going on run to evade Inland Revenue ?
Or is Lloyd George and Marconi Affair too salty for you ?
Or Lloyd George and Maundy Gregory selling peerages ?
Or Reginald Maudling and his Freemason buddy Poulson corrupting local government for construction deals ?
What about sweetheart demand between Thatcher and Murdoch or favours for Lord Hanson ?
Thank you and well added, Paul.
Nearer in time, how about the vaccine tsarina, Kate Bingham and wife of Tory minister Jesse Norman, flying to Wall Street during the pandemic to brief investors, sharing confidential information they could trade on.
Speaking of the pandemic and lock down, how about persistent breaches by the Blair family, leading to complaints by neighbours in Wotton, Buckinghamshire. The Blair family considers lock down to be for the little people.
As a horse racing enthusiast, how about Dido Harding failing upwards to become the next head of the Jockey Club.
Further to racing, how about the former head of the club, the 16th Duke of Norfolk, being in the pay of bookies and refusing the government’s offer of a Tote monopoly on racing betting, as is the case in France where racing thrives, and thus condemning the sport of kings to a slow death.
Thank you, George Georgiou. The first paragraph is an excellent observation, stylishly written. I will repeat it here: “All imperial powers eventually wither away. Some through war, some through economic decline, some as a result of a smorgasbord of internal contradictions, and most through a combination of these. But even long after a state’s primacy has crumbled, the ruling class perpetuates myths designed to maintain a semblance of importance and respect.”
I am reminded of Yanis Varoufakis’s essay about how the scandals of the PIIGs are treated as of enormous import, when they usually are over centesimi, even as the deep-seated scandals of the Civilized & Thrifty North are dismissed as aberrations and peccadilloes. And then Finland joins NATO (a peccadillo, eh).
I also recall Luigi Barzini’s important book, The Italians, in which he talks about the (abject) anglophilia among the Italian bourgeoisie. He claimed that the English represented fair play, a few simple and noble principles, a life of service. Unlike the meretricious Italians. He also claimed that one of his relatives, maybe his father, used to send his pants to London to be properly pressed. No Italian (in a nation where ironing is the national pastime) could press pants the way some English slavey could.
The delusions.
“The myth of a clean, fair and honourable Britannia gained traction in the 19th century.”
In some circles perhaps so, but the phrase “perfidious Albion” has been used since the 18th century to encapsulate a long-standing stereotype of British duplicity in various historical and geopolitical contexts.
Perhaps this is the difference between how the British like to see themselves versus how the French see them?
I think the French used Perfidious Albion to refer to British foreign policy. But French foreign policy in no less perfidious than British policy.
And don’t forget Vitreous China! (joke for millennial and older Brits…)
I was extremely puzzled by that too. I have come across many tropes used by people to justify their Anglophilia (especially growing up in Scandinavia, where Anglophilia is a common disease), but never a “myth of a clean, fair and honourable Britannia”. That would be like someone saying Russia may have its faults, but at least there is a high degree of social and economic equality and a deep-seated trust in the authorities (“wtf?” would of course be the response).
As I think you are suggesting at the end of your post, this so-called “myth” might be one that Britons wish existed (or have perpetuated among themselves, but even that I find doubtful), rather than part of how Britain is actually viewed in the rest of the world (which is, let’s not forget, quite large in relation to the UK itself).
“That would be like someone saying Russia may have its faults, but at least there is a high degree of social and economic equality and a deep-seated trust in the authorities ”
I think that’s true about Russia.
imo, the idea of ‘clean, fair, and honourable’ in the UK and the US applies only to power equals, to those who can be expected to push back as an equal in power and regard. It is a class sentiment. ‘Fair’ treatment never applied to the country’s poor or lower middle classes, or to the colonies, or even to the colonies’ upper levels, etc. The ‘rules based order’ of its day. / my 2 cents
I’ve never trusted the English, since learning in primary school about what they did to us in Culloden. It was presented to us as something like the Holocaust, Taiping, and Hiroshima, all rolled into one. I never forgot it.
This vision of Britain isn’t to be found in the work of 19th-century English novelists like Dickens, Thackeray and Gissing.
Anthony Trollope’s The Way We Live Now (1875) gives a scathing account of British financial imperialism, with an American angle. Post-2007 it reads like modern reportage. Also adapted into a superb mini-series starring David Suchet and an inexperienced Cillian Murphy. Trollope’s Phineas Finn, the Irish Member (1869) is stuffed with British parliamentary shenanigans. The pick of the Victorian novelists, I’d say.
I did say that my list starts from 1985 partly because it is within living memory of most readers, and I also said that it is merely indicative. A full list would probably need at least 2 A4 pages, and probably more.
Truth is Britain has always been corrupt as South Sea Bubble evidences and it was assiduous reformers who challenged it. The Labozr Party was prurient in its early days of Chapel and Nonconformist Protestantism and when journalism was working class apprenticed without university education they rooted out corruption.
Sunday Times Insight Team was outstanding and World In Action and even Panorama but Thatcher loathed them all and muzzled broadcasters – Blair went further with Ofcom
It is as Emmanuel Todd believes too many go to indoctrination in universities and become „on the make“. Journalism used to be poorly paid but respected now it is the inverse
Another piecework corruption is Parluament sitting in afternoon so Barristers can be in Court in the morning. Some Barristers know a seat in Parliament secures Silk quicker, some function as Recorders nicely combining Legislature and Judiciary in one.
If you want to see a contrast look at Contergan in Germany and how corruption stymied exposure then look at U.K. and Sunday Times exposure of Thalidomide then look at USA and the female scientist at FDA who blocked the drug being used in USA saving so much misery
Thank you and well said, Paul.
It’s great to see you back here.
> the female scientist at FDA who blocked the drug being used in USA saving so much misery
Her name was Frances Oldham Kelsey.
No mention of the ‘friends of Israel’ societies that a large number of MPs of both main parties sign up for. The benefits include substantial financial contributions to those individuals from Israel, in return for opposing a ceasefire in Gaza, supporting the continied supply of war materiel to Israel, blocking attempts to arrest visiting Israeli politicians and on the whole bleating ‘Israel has a right to defend itself’ and denying obvious genocide etc.
Peter Oborne on Double Down News or Declassified UK
Having been born, raised and educated in Britain as well visiting the country on a regular basis, I can assure you that the British establishment still peddles the myth of a clean and fair(as in honourable) Britain when compared to other countries. And I have encountered this myth when visiting other countries. Here in Cyprus where I live, I often encounter the argument that corruption in the UK is far less of a problem than it is in Cyprus.
For all of Jack London’s faults, his undercover experience in the London slums, out of which his book, The People of the Abyss was written, provides a first hand account of Albion’s dark side like no contemporary “journalist” that I’m familiar with has come close to
From the preface:
Society grows, while political machines rack to pieces and become “scrap.” For the English, so far as manhood and womanhood and health and happiness go, I see a broad and smiling future. But for a great deal of the political machinery, which at present mismanages for them, I see nothing else than the scrap heap.
https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1688/pg1688-images.html
Thank you, Yves and George.
Further to the royal family’s claim to assets from estates, that has been known since the 1980s. I was still at school when it was reported.
I would add a senior regulator covering up a minister’s City criminality and, as reward, getting the top job. The UK dodged a bullet there as said minister, when a young banker at a US firm, advised the Mexican government to shoot protestors as a signal to investors that it meant business during the Tequila Crisis.
How about Mandelson’s links to Epstein? There are over 300 British nationals and residents detailed in the Epstein books.
How about Starmer’s repeated failure to prosecute Jimmy Saville and the Murdoch gang?
How about William Hague as Adviser to Geoffrey Howe while on McKinsey payroll ?
How about Mark Thatcher as Commission-Agent on BAe Al-Yammah deal ?
How about Mohammed Al-Fayaed being cleared to buy Harrods by DTI even though the money used was not his but stolen from Sultan of Brunei by Hero from Zero
Thank you, Paul.
This is fun.
How about the stream of well connected PPE types from Oxford getting jobs in Whitehall and Brussels, e.g. Nick Clegg, Tory and later Liberal son of Leon Brittan’s best mate?
In Hong Kong, Mark Thatcher, or “honking in his vocab, used to say, “It’s time to pay for mumsie.”
One looks forward to more.
Britain is f’ed, isn’t it.
The attitudes aren’t that dissimilar to those in the American PMC. The sense of entitlement, of different, or no, or definable on the fly, rules. Of effortless othering of those in the lower orders. Of using money and connections, preferably only one, to get the preferred result. Morality and ethics are such quaint terms, noticeable in their absence.
About the Mexican “Tequila Crisis” or severe loss of value of the Peso and the adoption of NAFTA at the same time, Mexico became close to the slowest growing economy of all the Americas, losing more than 25% of GDP relative to the US since 1992 even as Mexican exports increased radically:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1q1ra
January 15, 2018
Real Narrow Effective Exchange Rate for United States and Mexico, 1992-2024
(Indexed to 1992)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=16NcB
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for Mexico as a percent of Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for United States & Exports of Goods and Services by Mexico as a percent of Gross Domestic Product, 1992-2022
(Indexed to 1992)
Thank you, CA.
That former minister is Sajid Javid. His mutual protector is the governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey.
Especially revelatory and important:
1) The UK dodged a bullet there as said minister, when a young banker at a US firm, advised the Mexican government to shoot protestors as a signal to investors that it meant business during the Tequila Crisis.
2) That former minister is Sajid Javid. His mutual protector is the governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey.
— Colonel Smithers
Thank you, CA.
Javid’s criminality extends from Mexico to India to Hong Kong.
Javid is now JPM Morgan’s lead on healthcare privatisation.
About the “Tequila Crisis,” Mexico became close to the slowest growing economy of all the Americas, losing more than 25% of GDP relative to the US since 1992 even as Mexican exports increased radically:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1q1xC
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for Mexico as a percent of Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for United States, 1992-2023
(Indexed to 1992)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1q1A6
August 4, 2014
Exports of Goods and Services by Mexico as a percent of Gross Domestic Product, 1992-2022
(Indexed to 1992)
RE: brand image
That’s about all the West has left as it’s running on fumes, but it’s definitely still there.
I was just speaking to a USian relative who follows foreign politics pretty closely, at least enough to know the names of the UK and other countries’ parties which is more than 95% of Americans know, and she was very enthused by Labor’s recent victory, thinking that would reverse the decline of the NHS under the Tories.
I almost forwarded her this piece from NC a couple days ago – https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/07/under-new-labour-government-the-privatisation-of-uks-national-health-service-is-if-anything-likely-to-intensify-including-in-scotland.html
Decided against it though – the little lightbulb in her head is more likely to go off if she figures it out on her own.
Thank you.
Have a read of: https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/07/09/policy-and-politics/.
Does that mean that just as ” only Nixon could go to China”, that only Labor can further privatise the NHS?
Meanwhile over at the American empire mad king Joe is threatening his own supporters. Perhaps the correct narrative is I,Claudius–for both countries.
Of course we didn’t use to be an empire and were a better country for it. Gore Vidal blamed the change on WW2. Whereas after WW2 the UK was devastated and knocked down a peg or two and a better country for it. I remember hearing, many years ago, someone saying the diff between the US and UK was that England was a country where you could be a failure and still have friends. Here’s guessing that may no longer be the case. The neoliberal grift has gone international?
Lloyd George notwithstanding (and I doubt not that assiduous students of the relevant history could find plenty of other instances of corruption/illegitimate/questionable activity- e.g. T Dan Smith, the Zinoviev letter, MI5 and links to the Tory Party?), I do think there was a period after the Northcote-Trevelyan report in 1854 and 1979 when standards in public life in the UK were higher than they had been in the centuries preceding and have been in the last 45 years. But it would require an exhaustive, properly informed and rather depressing exercise in research to stand this hypothesis up. And would almost certainly have to ignore what was going on in the colonies.
Thank you.
With regard to the colonies, let me highlight one example, Sir Bede Clifford, scion of the Barons Clifford of Chudleigh and great grandfather of Mrs Samantha Cameron.
As governor of Mauritius, Clifford divided the Indian community between Hindus and Muslims and further divided the Hindu community with Tamil and Telegu speakers, but not legally. Most Mauritian Indians speak Hindi, Bhojpuri and Bihari. Some speak Urdu. As we speak French in Mauritius, we say, “Diviser pour mieux regner.”
Clifford was sent to the Bahamas. There, he acquired land in his own name and later sold to the government, headed by him, for profit. He’s considered one of the most corrupt officials in British history.
Readers may be interested in: https://reparations.community-languages.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Drax-2.pdf. The Drax family mentioned provided the name for Bond villain Hugo. Ian Fleming named the baddies after classmates such as Blofeld.
Needless to say, the colonial records at Hanslope Park are little known. Access is not encouraged.
Superb comments, Colonel Smithers.
Thank you.
I just wanted to remind everyone that India suffered 165 million excess deaths due to British colonialism between 1880 and 1920.
This figure is larger than the combined number of deaths from both World Wars, including the Nazi holocaust. Clean, fair, and honorable? Maybe…. and Bob’s
yer uncle!
Does the horror of Grenfell Towers fire and the continued installation of fire-propagating cladding on other residential buildings constitute any kind of corruption, or the subsequent middle finger to the mopes who suffered both the “shelter in place” death sentence and the displacement and disparagement subsequently rise to the leve of “corruption?”
Or just another example of “less oblige?”
This is an odd article. It’s not an exhaustive or analytical look at UK corruption. It just seems to be throwing mud. It is useful for showing the scale of the problem.
I don’t think the UK ever had a golden age free of high-level corruption. However, I think there are different kinds of corruption:
– The Northcote-Trevelyan reforms created a civil service without self-dealing. Politicians did not reform but the civil service used to police them when they were in office. Now there is a revolving door with industry for both groups and the bulwark of institutional probity against the politicians’ venality has been lost
– The institutional corruption that sees insiders unite against outsiders remains: look at the long line of cover ups (Haemophilia, BSE, Post Office Horizon system, Hillsborough Stadium, covert policing, construction union blacklisting, Stephen Lawrence murder cover ups etc.). This is inherent to organisations and power structures and has been in place for ever. The last politician to resign for a civil service error by the doctrine of Ministerial responsibility was in the Crichel Down affair in the 1950’s (improper dealing in land originally requisitioned for WW2). Ironically, freedom of information and reduction if crown immunity and the increase in judicial review has brought a lot more of this to light but the reforms to public enquiries have neutered the mechanisms to hold people to account
– some of the other accusations are about personal immorality of politicians. Again, some people will always be on the take. What matters are the systems to prevent, mitigate, detect and prosecute this behaviour. Here, the press is now complicit and possibly the police too and so there is impunity, the kind that corrupts absolutely.
– there was a set of expectations from say 1875-1975 among the ruling classes of how people behaved. Transgression got you booted out of society. This was unfair on some alternative lifestyles – homosexuals fled to the Continent, would-be divorcés lived in dead marriages etc. But bankruptcy and offences of dishonesty had serious repercussions and war profiteers etc were held at arms length from the inner circles. These days, bounders suffer no social censure and thus abound….
Where the UK retains a culture of honesty and fairness is at the roots. There is minimal petty corruption. Nobody asks for bribes in brown envelopes in the NHS or police or University admissions system (big official loopholes of private practice or legacy donations excepted). Local government is however considered a cesspool of corrupt mediocrity, particularly planning….
This street level probity is the reason high level corruption is viewed so dimly in the UK. How we restore standards to public life – prosecute the bastards – is beyond me with the excess of the coronavirus procurement almost taunting us and the Blairite “sofa government” being co tinued by all the parties.
I suspect the religious moralising of the Victorians was necessary to ground the rules in a society-wide worldview and that today’s neoliberalism makes it impossible.
Excellent comment, thank you Rev!