I want to thank Stuart, from Finchley for this column. His calls to the LBC’s James O’Brien triggered a mixture of huge respect and deep despondency in me and other listeners. This daily show has become a moral sanctuary for decent people who feel disorientated in our now politically dissipated land.
After Stuart, then a civil servant, phoned the programme last July, he was sacked for breaking the civil service code. This week he told the presenter: ‘[That] was a heartfelt plea to senior civil servants in 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office to stop facilitating corrupt practices. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. And I’m back on again today… to tell your listeners we need to wake up now to this. This is corruption of the highest level. And we cannot accept this anymore.’ Sadly many modern Britons not only tolerate corruption, they exalt rule breakers. Some actively aid the unscrupulous and ‘heroic’ disrupters.
Don Macintyre’s assessment of Simon Case in this newspaper was scathing and timely. The Zelig-like Cabinet Secretary is always there and seemingly implicated in various government mishaps and cavalier ministerial conduct. Senior Civil servants have a duty to uphold propriety and protect the public interest. Sounds so fuddy-duddy, no? No one cares about such stuffy stuff. Who dares wins. Better oversights existed in the old Roman Republic than in this polity today .
The media is hyperventilating about Boris Johnson (again), Nadim Zahawi and Rishi Sunak. The circus will move on. There will be no examination of how public life became unethical and boorish, or who to blame, or why the erosion of standards matters so little. Even now, in Uxbridge, Johnson’s constituency, the faithful are with him. One media report quoted one of them: ‘We know he’s a prat, but that’s why we put him in. He’s our prat.’ Others believe he will rise again and save the nation. Tories in my area are still grieving for this known dissembler and cheat.
Far worse are the movers and shakers currently vandalizing the pillars of this ancient nation and debasing its values. The accused include HarperCollins who have apparently paid Mr Boris Johnson a six figure advance for his ‘memoir’ which is bound to be fictionalised and entirely self- serving. And the Spectator and Telegraph which previously fed his ego and pockets. And his generous groupies worldwide. In the last six months, The New York investment bankers Centerview Partners, India’s Hindustan Times and other acolytes have paid him over £200,000 each to speak at events. Let’s not And the secretive HMRC which cooperates so nicely with zillionaires and power merchants.
Then there are the Tory gentleman backers who supply the ex PM with luxury food, wallpaper, sundry goods and limitless cash. The BBC chair Richard Sharp, who is also very close to Sunak, has been Boris’s helpful facilitator. These Johnsons are living free in accommodation worth £3,500 a month provided by the loyal Conservative donor Lord Bamford and his wife. Christopher Harborne, previously a big backer of Nigel Farage, has given a million quid to Johnson’s office. Such selflessness and generosity is often rewarded with knighthoods and peerages.
Todays most eminent circles of power of money, include Sunak, Zahawi, Johnson, Sharp and other right wingers. They, who ‘neglected’ to pay proper taxes- Sunak, Zahawi- and they, who still claim they did no wrong- Johnson and Sharp – carry on privileging their class interests. Look up the connections, draw arrows, see how they have grabbed power and wealth and then howl.
Rachel Reeves says she would ‘drain the swamp’. Good. Could she please also admit that our political culture’s decay can be traced back to 2000? The deified Blair’s most trusted people- Peter Mandelson, Lord Levy and others were part of the same circles of the most privilege and well connected. In 2006, four businessmen, who had lent the party millions of pounds, were nominated by Tony Blair for peerages. The appointments were blocked by the House of Lords appointments commission. Some nominees were arrested and questioned.
And never forget the Iraq war. In his autobiography, Greg Dyke, an ex-BBC DG, revealed that Blair had tried to force him and his chairman Gavin Davies – both Labourites- to stop any critical coverage of this unjustifiable war. Alistair Campbell, Blair’s intimidating media man, now virtuous, like a born- again Christian, had, claimed Dyke, obsessively targeted the BBC. The Hutton Report vindicated the government. Both Davies and Dyke left the BBC. The late Philip Gould, a devoted Blairite allegedly told a Labour peer: ‘Don’t worry, we appointed the right judge.’ Yes, a good enabler.
Millions of us have been in this foul swamp for too long. Stuart of Finchley tells us not to accept this any more. So let’s get active. Write to your MPs, to the BBC board, to HMRC, to HarperCollins, to dodgy peers and regulatory bodies. Angry voters in Stratford and Uxbridge should mobilize and vote out their MPS. Let’s make Britain great again.
I newspaper 25th January 2023