Scandals, Scandals, Scandals: What Happened to Accountability?
It seems like every time that we switch on the TV or open up the Twitter app, there’s another story leaking about a politician involved in some sort of scandal. In the past year alone we’ve seen all sorts of scandal in our ‘political elite.’ Scandal that has been seemingly brushed under the rug with the perpetrators kept in their positions or resigning pre-emptively to protect their image or to fake some degree of remorse. Dominic Cummings took his ‘tour de Barnard Castle’ for an eye test in early April 2020, and subsequently undermined public confidence and adherence to lockdown measures with his unapologetic stance. Priti Patel was found to have broken ministerial code and had been bullying her civil servants, and Boris Johnson decided that the inquiry didn’t matter. Boris Johnson gave Patel his full support and backing [this is after previously breaking ministerial code back in 2017 and being removed as International Development Secretary due to unauthorised meetings with the Israeli Government]. Matt Hancock was ruled by a High Court Judge to have unlawfully handed out PPE contracts back in 2020, and in 2021 the Good Law Project took legal action against Hancock not declaring many of these contracts. Hancock further traumatised the nation when his softcore sex tape with Gina Coladangelo was leaked, resulting in Hancock leaving his wife and resigning from his role as ‘damage control’. All of this was overseen by Boris Johnson, who went around hospitals mask-less, shaking COVID patients’ hands in the early days of the pandemic to show how ‘fearless’ he was, before entering the ICU himself with COVID19, thanking the nurses for his care and then telling his MP’s how he would rather “let the bodies pile high” before continuing on with the third lockdown measures.
Yet despite all of this scandal, and the many more left undiscussed here, many people are still satisfied with the behaviour of the government and still flock to defend their corruption, cronyism, and nepotism. For a country that feigns concern and proactively intervenes in the ‘corruption’ of other countries (typically, countries we formerly colonised or have significant economic power over), we’re pretty oblivious and even quite nonchalant about the corruption and scandal amongst our own politicians. We’ve historically tried to bring ‘democracy’ and ‘civilisation’ to the rest of the world and hold a huge degree of influence with our membership to international organisations such as NATO and the World Bank, yet we can’t even hold our own politicians to account for their despicable behaviour. Attempts at accountability through the use of independent inquiries have had a questionable amount of ‘independence’, and throughout the pandemic, many peers have been elected to positions of power despite having significant conflicts of interest [Baroness Harding heading up the NHS Track and Trace whilst also leading the NIHP without taking leave of absence as the Conservative Whip]. Even more amusing is the appointment of Baroness Harding’s husband John Penrose as anti-corruption Tsar, and his subsequent “independent investigation” into the cronyism in UK government that led to his wife’s controversial appointments, as well as the appointments and contracts handed to many of his ‘well connected peers’ – impartiality is obviously at the heart of the British government. However, despite corruption and cronyism being deeply entrenched in the UK political system, there are organisations working tirelessly to hold the government to account.
The Good Law Project was set up in 2017 to hold the government to account and achieve systemic change using the law. In 2019, they challenged the prorogation of Boris Johnson’s Conservative government, in which the prorogation was ruled illegal (however, at this point, Johnson had already pushed through his Brexit deal, so it left the issue moot). They continue to campaign in the face of the government, and have currently received approval for Judicial Review of 11/14 cases, many to do with the cronyism through the COVID19 pandemic. On an international level, the Universal Rights Group are working to hold the UK and Welsh governments to account for the obligations that the UK has signed up to under international law, particularly attaining to human rights. There are many independent activists campaigning and speaking out against the governments scandals and corruption, using social media platforms to share their message and engage people in discussions. The growth in mediums in which people are becoming more informed has also been staggering, with a rise in ‘infographics’ over the past few years providing us with an aesthetic introduction to important issues we may not have necessarily heard about or engaged with if it wasn’t on our newsfeed. Whilst there are important discussions to be had about digital literacy and ‘fake news’ on these platforms, they are playing an increasingly important role in engaging young and old alike in these important issues. More and more large organisations are seeing the value in using social media to disseminate their messages and campaigns. Whilst Guy Fawkes may have had the right idea, using social media to circumvent bias news platforms and get the information out there about corruption and cronyism is an important move in holding this government to account, and hopefully this growing wave of understanding about these issues will be represented in the way that people vote in future elections to come.
Written by Geena Whiteman
Geena is a PhD student researching how young people are entering the workforce, particularly how they pursue entrepreneurship and what entrepreneurship means to them.
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