In a letter to The Times this morning all the living former Cabinet Secretaries co-signed a letter demanding an enhanced Code of Conduct on behaviour in public life.
That they thought a statutory basis for this was required was, perhaps, unsurprising. This was more telling though:
[B]alance must be brought to the ministerial code. It must be strictly enforced, but the system in place needs ways of recognising that some breaches are more important than others. Rules, though, will only take us so far. Good people will behave well. Bad people may find ways round whatever rules there are, and we should aim to frame regulations to make cheating them harder. But ultimately we need all in positions of trust to set an example: as Lord Evans of Weardale said, our political system is a common good that we all have a responsibility to preserve and improve.
Lord Butler of Brockwell, cabinet secretary 1988-98; Lord Wilson of Dinton, cabinet secretary 1998-2002; Lord Turnbull, cabinet secretary 2002-05; Lord O'Donnell, cabinet secretary 2005-11; Lord Sedwill, cabinet secretary 2018-20
I agree with them.
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It still amazes me that people need to be confronted by Tory sleaze before they get angry about it.
They’ve always been the most corrupt party for goodness sake.
A leopard does not change it spots. They’ve always been the most sleazy and corrupt party because of one thing: the wealth of those who are involved with them.
You think that would sunk by now?
I agree this corruption has to be held to account. If not it undermines civil society.
A locksmith once told me that “locks only keep honest people out, others will always find a way past them”.
The same happens with any rules or regulations you can think up, they’re will always be those trying to find a way around them.
Is it Shell who seem to have found a way around EU regs by moving their tax address to London?
While it is heartening to see members of the establishment loudly defending some of the core values upon which democracy relies, make no mistake these ageing white males no longer represent mainstream Conservatism, which is overwhelmingly controlled by populist ideologues. This is not simply true of government circles, but of the entire Party apparatus at all levels. It has mirrored the process in the Republican Party and is just as insidious. Johnson may well go if he becomes perceived as an electoral liability, but it will change nothing apart from style. Scruffy suits and daft hair are irrelevant.
The idea that these “members of the establishment” are defending core values upon which democracy relies is fairly laughable. The likes of Robin Butler, Gus O’Donnell et al are the guardians of the privilege and power that the establishment enjoy. Their intervention in the current corruption spat is part of the smoke and mirrors that are always used in these circumstances. Butler was Cabinet secretary for Thatcher, Major and Blair! The idea that he would be shocked by conservative MPs lining their pockets from paid lobbying is preposterous. What he and the others are complaining about is the clumsiness of the government’s response and the and the fact that they have allowed it to come into the open. Nothing else.
I disagree
Things have got much worse
I can only assume they read my comment on here from the other day: https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2021/11/10/mps-shoukd-have-to-justify-any-second-job-they-have-and-seek-prior-approval-for-taking-it/#comment-891007
Pretending to do enforcement is pretending to have rules. But actually bad people only get around the rules if enforcement is weak. I spent a lot of time doing enforcement against people who wrongly thought they would get away with it again. They didn’t because of the Proceeds of Crime Act one of the few laws that really works.
I have long thought that regulation is directly linked to ethics and morality. Where organisations (private or public) are run in ways that are fundamentally ethical – the don’t want to damage or cheat their ‘customers’, they pay their taxes and so on – regulation tends not to be an issue. Essentially they do self-regulate, and yes I have come across such organisations in business, mutuals and public sector.
Where organisations have lost the plot, no amount of regulation will change their behaviour as they set out to game the system. It is seen most starkly in the City which complains bitterly about being over regulated which arguably it is. However it has a track record of gaming the system, getting its own people in to set the regulations in the first place and repeatedly behaving in ways that are profoundly unethical. As part of that, it is no surprise to find that it is the centre of tax evasion.
Changing the rules has no effect on these people – it has to be something more profound