Reader Writes June 2021

Holy Mother of God, here we go again!” as Ted Hastings might put it. But at last a headline to hang on to: yes, the ‘cash for curtains’ scandal! We have sleaze and snobbery and the disquiet of the powerful all combined to cause both entertainment and serious questions. As the Prime Minister keeps saying in Prime Minister’s Questions, surely to goodness there are more important things to be talking about, such as Brexit (sorry, perhaps not) or the economy or the pandemic. Yet opposition members of all stripes, again and again, raise the issue of dishonesty, lies and sleaze in the government. They and their voters do think it is important. I was recently complaining about this issue to some friends, not UK citizens, who said with one voice “Oh, but all politicians lie!” But do they? Should they? Is it acceptable, and importantly, does it handicap effective government in a complex world?

In the vortex of the pandemic storm just now there is India with a tragic (scandalous?) Covid death rate. You could also point to South America, especially Brazil, and at Trump’s America last year. Populism appears to have fostered national exceptionalism with risky decisions and fatal results. The leaders of these nations had plenty of power, but it didn’t provide effective pandemic strategy. The evidence is that sound government requires transparency and integrity, and both foster consent to be governed, whether democratic or not. A ‘vacuum of integrity’ at the heart of government, as some have called it, erodes that consent with dysfunctional results.

So there is ample argument for the importance of integrity in government, even though, according to elections, voters seem to have little time or energy to complain much when sleaze bush fires are burning out of control. But it’s a perennial issue. Many are pointing to the Nolan principles adopted 25 years ago for guidance of those in public service. Prominently, among the 7 principles, are honesty, openness, selflessness and integrity. This came out of another scandal around the use of power in return for cash.

Ministers and senior civil servants may argue that the boundaries between government and business are unavoidably porous, and the rules for negotiating them are a minefield. But the Nolan principles are set in tablets of stone and, actually, work on a different operating system called morality. It should be possible to discern in a moment that some exchange or interaction transgresses ethical boundaries. Someone entrusted with power on our behalf needs a conscience to go with it.

I’ll turn to the Apostle Paul for guidance and for the provision of a clear and beautiful moral compass. He wrote to the church in Philippi “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Let’s remember the context; Philippi was an important Roman colony guarding key sea routes and a road into Asia. The church in Philippi had little if any power beyond their reputation as believers and citizens; and Paul himself was a prisoner in Rome. Yet, God used Paul and these tiny churches, to change the world. Rule by service and integrity, and the radical humility of Jesus, overturned Greek rule by the hero.