There is a pretty complacent and narrow summary of where we are on corruption in politics by William Hague in The Times today. Peter Oborne’s recent throughly researched and meticulously referenced “The Assault on Truth” details the extent of our Prime Minister’s mendaciousness in office. When your head of Government is a liar everything flows from that.
Corruption requires lies and cover ups. In a culture like this right is not distinguished from wrong. And we know what happens when first you practice to deceive. The repetitiveness of deceit becomes endemic. This ranges from petty porky pies to behaviour that in days of yore would have led inevitably to resignation.
Liars in office, when they are rumbled, just don’t resign any more. Cover up is piled on top of cover up and the original offence, though compounded, is often deeply buried in the slime. And the media focuses on the latest revelations not the old news. This culture creates a new and insidious norm where not only is corruption rife but it actually may not even be seen as such.
Liz Truss spoke of the current allegations against Boris Johnson yesterday by papering over them and trying to push them aside. She didn’t answer the very fair questions posed. The BBC radio news I’ve just heard (first item) said that Boris Johnson is concentrating on policy today (or some such platitude). This newspaper has not even reviewed Oborne’s book. We are being played.
We need a Joe Biden to clean the swamp. And we need ex politicians who have been in or near high office , like William Hague, to act as well.
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