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05-02-2022, 01:40 PM
Robert Barrington
Professor of Anti-Corruption Practice at the Centre for the Study of Corruption in the University of Sussex.
Published On 4 Feb 2022
What should we make of the recent unusually turbulent weeks in British politics? The picture is not just one of a prime minister under siege and political manoeuvrings. The unusual occurrence is that the prime minister’s behaviour has raised fundamental uncertainties about the United Kingdom’s constitution and democracy – whether it is fit for purpose, and whether it can withstand the turbulence.
The first ripples of constitutional disquiet had started almost as soon as Boris Johnson came to power in 2019, with concerns over his personal honesty, breaches of the ministerial code that is meant to govern the conduct of government ministers and a number of actions that skirted the borders of constitutional acceptability. This was compounded by attacks from his allies on the informal checks and balances in the political system, such as independence of the judiciary and the media, along with threats to breach international law in the tussle over Brexit. Already, by 2021, the Johnson government had forged a reputation of being willing to break rules and conventions.
Over time, those ripples of concern have mounted into a tsunami, with proven corruption, gross breaches of integrity, lying, multiple further allegations of cronyism and corruption around COVID procurement, and a host of other misdemeanours, each of which in normal times might have caused a resignation.
......
Sue Gray, was directed by the prime minister to conduct an internal investigation. This was to be specifically into the well-evidenced allegations that he had on several occasions broken the COVID lockdown rules to attend parties, despite regularly appearing on television telling the rest of the country to follow those same rules.
......
On the eve of the report being delivered, there was further drama: Gray had uncovered evidence of lockdown law-breaking that merited bringing in the Metropolitan Police who, until then, had steadfastly refused to investigate the stories and photographs circulating in the media.
It is a heady mixture of wrongdoing, cover-up and lies, that has dragged the civil service and the police into the arena of political debate. What once looked to be a robust democracy now looks surprisingly vulnerable to a populist who can exploit the constitutional loopholes, downgrade the checks and balances, and co-opt the police.
One of the lessons the world has learned over the past 20 years is that liberal democracies are surprisingly fragile. They may be less likely to descend into armed civil war than those traditionally considered to be fragile states, but they can slip easily into illiberal democracy, especially when mistrust in the incumbent political establishment opens the door to the election of populists. Hungary and India, to name but a few, have embarked on this path. Others, like South Africa, went further, into the territory of “state capture”.
......
What is at stake is not the end of democracy, but a decline into semi-democracy as Johnson clings to power, or is replaced by someone who takes his assault on the constitution a stage or two further. That would not just be bad for the UK; it would signify to the world at large that there is nothing very secure about liberal democracies and that they can all too easily be compromised or captured.
The Johnson government has been untypical of modern British governments. Without yet being systemically corrupt, there has been more corruption and corruption risk in and around this government than any British government since at least the second world war.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/...n-the-edge
Professor of Anti-Corruption Practice at the Centre for the Study of Corruption in the University of Sussex.
Published On 4 Feb 2022
What should we make of the recent unusually turbulent weeks in British politics? The picture is not just one of a prime minister under siege and political manoeuvrings. The unusual occurrence is that the prime minister’s behaviour has raised fundamental uncertainties about the United Kingdom’s constitution and democracy – whether it is fit for purpose, and whether it can withstand the turbulence.
The first ripples of constitutional disquiet had started almost as soon as Boris Johnson came to power in 2019, with concerns over his personal honesty, breaches of the ministerial code that is meant to govern the conduct of government ministers and a number of actions that skirted the borders of constitutional acceptability. This was compounded by attacks from his allies on the informal checks and balances in the political system, such as independence of the judiciary and the media, along with threats to breach international law in the tussle over Brexit. Already, by 2021, the Johnson government had forged a reputation of being willing to break rules and conventions.
Over time, those ripples of concern have mounted into a tsunami, with proven corruption, gross breaches of integrity, lying, multiple further allegations of cronyism and corruption around COVID procurement, and a host of other misdemeanours, each of which in normal times might have caused a resignation.
......
Sue Gray, was directed by the prime minister to conduct an internal investigation. This was to be specifically into the well-evidenced allegations that he had on several occasions broken the COVID lockdown rules to attend parties, despite regularly appearing on television telling the rest of the country to follow those same rules.
......
On the eve of the report being delivered, there was further drama: Gray had uncovered evidence of lockdown law-breaking that merited bringing in the Metropolitan Police who, until then, had steadfastly refused to investigate the stories and photographs circulating in the media.
It is a heady mixture of wrongdoing, cover-up and lies, that has dragged the civil service and the police into the arena of political debate. What once looked to be a robust democracy now looks surprisingly vulnerable to a populist who can exploit the constitutional loopholes, downgrade the checks and balances, and co-opt the police.
One of the lessons the world has learned over the past 20 years is that liberal democracies are surprisingly fragile. They may be less likely to descend into armed civil war than those traditionally considered to be fragile states, but they can slip easily into illiberal democracy, especially when mistrust in the incumbent political establishment opens the door to the election of populists. Hungary and India, to name but a few, have embarked on this path. Others, like South Africa, went further, into the territory of “state capture”.
......
What is at stake is not the end of democracy, but a decline into semi-democracy as Johnson clings to power, or is replaced by someone who takes his assault on the constitution a stage or two further. That would not just be bad for the UK; it would signify to the world at large that there is nothing very secure about liberal democracies and that they can all too easily be compromised or captured.
The Johnson government has been untypical of modern British governments. Without yet being systemically corrupt, there has been more corruption and corruption risk in and around this government than any British government since at least the second world war.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/...n-the-edge
