PALATINATE | Thursday 3rd December 2020
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Politics
Cronyism at the top: PM’s defence of Priti Patel Alex Marsh "We renew our place as the party of law and order in Britain." You would think that the irony of these words, spoken by Priti Patel to the Conservative Party Conference in 2019, would be self-evident in light of the release of a report into historic bullying allegations against the Home Secretary. Apparently, not so for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who told the Commons last Wednesday that he made "no apology for standing by Priti Patel". His dismissal of a report, which concluded that Ms Patel, during her tenure at three different Government departments, breached Britain’s Ministerial Code through her behaviour towards officials, is incongruous with the claim that his party is committed to rooting out wrongdoing across the country. The optics of such a move are hardly improved by the release of the report during the UK’s AntiBullying Week. The dissonance between what members of the government say, and what they do has hardly ever been so apparent. Priti Patel’s misconduct is
not an isolated incident. As International Development Secretary, she was forced to resign in 2017 by Prime Minister Theresa May after it was revealed she had held unauthorised meetings with Israeli politicians. This is also not the only recent incident of wrongdoing within his ranks that the Prime Minister has ignored. In March, Boris Johnson had a simple message for UK citizens to tackle the coronavirus pandemic – "you must stay at home". Less than a month later Dominic Cummings, a senior advisor to the Prime Minister, was not forced to resign despite it being revealed that he had broken the national lockdown to travel to his parents’ home in County Durham.
Priti Patel's misconduct is not an isolated incident The lack of accountability faced by the closest members of Mr Johnson’s circle lays bare his governing principle – one rule for his ministers and supporters, another for the rest of us. Any other employee would have been fired for behaviour similar to that exhibited by Ms Patel towards
her officials, many other Brits were fined for lockdown breaches similar to that of Mr Cummings. But, aided and abetted by her party, as well as the rightwing press, Ms Patel has thus far managed to fend off calls for her resignation. Conservative MPs practically tripped over themselves rushing to the Home Secretary’s defence on Twitter, with Jacob Rees-Mogg, Leader of the House of Commons, tweeting that "Priti is an asset to government". All these defences, including Ms Patel’s own, that the negative consequences of her behaviour were "unintentional", undoubtedly do enormous damage to our democracy. Protesting Ms Patel’s
innocence on account of ignorance, stature or personal experience, fails to acknowledge the way power dynamics favour those who are most prominent within government. Only if the Prime Minister is prepared to hold his ministers accountable to the codes of conduct that check abuses of power can he prevent a collapse in confidence in our country’s leadership. By not forcing the Home Secretary to resign, Boris Johnson has privileged the ideological allegiance Ms Patel has lent him over her questionable ministerial conduct and bullying ways, abandoning his moral duty at a time of national
(UK Prime Minister, Creative Commons)
crisis. If it were ever gone, there can now be no doubt that the ‘Nasty Party’ is well and truly back.
There can now be no doubt that the 'Nasty Party' is well and truly back The lack of remorse from the Home Secretary for her actions, and the Prime Minister’s unwillingness to hold her accountable for them, is unsurprising considering his government’s track record. Upon assuming office in July 2019, Johnson promised to defend the interests "of the forgotten people and the left behind towns". To the contrary, favouritism and cronyism run rife – the National Audit Office has found that suppliers of PPE were ten times more likely to win government contracts if they had close connections to senior politicians. Far from seizing the moment "to give strong leadership", the Prime Minister has chosen to do nothing, exposing himself as a leader concerned only with the interests of the most wellconnected and the most powerful in our society.
A beacon of hope: Covid-19 vaccination developments Jake Roberts 2020 has been rough for everyone. Whether you have unfortunately experienced a personal loss, or have simply been affected by the worldwide isolation, I think we can all take solace in the fact that everyone has been going through the same thing – all wondering when it would finally come to an end. In recent weeks, however, we discovered that Pfizer, Moderna, and Oxford University believe they have the answer: vaccines.
How efficient these vaccines are, assuming they are safe, iss down to the government Once these vaccines go through all the necessary paperwork and administration (and there’s a lot of it), they have the potential to end this pandemic once and for all. We have seen in recent history how vaccines can do this – think Edward Jenner’s (albeit old fashioned) vaccine that eradicated smallpox. Fast forward to today, and we have vaccines for diseases such as polio, mumps, measles, rubella, the list goes on. The effects that this relatively new field of science can have on the world is monumental and
influences the planet for generations to come. How efficient these vaccines are, however – assuming they’re found to be safe – is down to the Government. The NHS will be in charge of the vaccine rollout across the UK. We have already been told the running order for who will get the vaccines first: the vulnerable, NHS and care workers, the over-50s, etc. There is even talk that as long as the vulnerable are vaccinated, there is no need to vaccinate anyone else who is, for example, young with no underlying health conditions. Regardless as to who gets it, the Government are overseeing the entire vaccination process, and have already taken steps to ensure its efficiency, such as pre-ordering over 100 million doses, mobilising the military to
assist with logistics, telling the NHS to prepare for a mass vaccination program. The concern, however, is if the Government will be able to follow through with what will undoubtedly be the country’s largest healthcare program in modern history. We have seen time and time again the constant U-turns the Government have had to perform throughout 2020. From free school meals to the first attempt at a track and trace app to the exam results fiasco over summer, the Government has shown its inability to deal with highly important national issues. Some say that U-turns are examples of the Government “listening to the concerns of the people”, but I personally cannot recollect a time where any sitting Government
has gone back on their word as much as this current one. The vaccine rollout is something that the Government cannot afford to mess up. The lives of potentially tens-ofthousands depend on the efficient rollout of this vaccine. If the Government is seen to have made a catastrophic error in this – something they’re used to at this point – not only will more people needlessly suffer, but their already weaning trust will be lowered even further. This Government has already caused the needless deaths of thousands with their concerning pattern of taking action against Covid-19 too late – first seen in March when we entered lockdown about two weeks after the rest of Europe. It is totally possible for the Government to do this correctly. Not only that, but I personally believe that the country is capable of doing this. Not due to the Government however, more down to the military’s proficiency in logistics along with our fantastic NHS who have been tirelessly working throughout this whole thing. There is a bright light at the end of the tunnel, and the Government simply cannot afford to make that tunnel longer.
(Marco Verch via Flickr)
From the Editors The past fortnight can be characterised as the epitome of political and legislative conflict. Westminster's decision to ease the national lockdown in time for Christmas has seen both praise and criticism, further exacerbated by the increasingly hopeful developments relating to a Covid-19 vaccination. International governance has similarily been defined by power and protest, personified perfectly by the continued refusal to concede by US President Trump. This zeitgeist is mirrored globally, as illustrated by power struggles in Peru, Ethiopia and beyond. In this edition, our contributors assess the motivations of today's leaders involved in these civil conflicts and others alike, in an era in which bipartisanship is more valuable than ever. Aisha Sembhi, Politics Editor GOT AN IDEA FOR AN ARTICLE?
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