Transparency International report that the UK drops five places, in their Corruption Perceptions Index. “The UK’s score fell sharply to 73 this year — its lowest since the Index underwent a major revamp in 2012 — resulting in a seven-place tumble in the global rankings from 11th to 18th” , below Belgium and above France. Daniel Bruce, their CEO, blames public procurement corruption, the questionable and partisan decisions on the levelling up fund grants, the multiple breaches of the ministerial code, and the growing visibility of cash for peerages and the crony funding of the Tory Party.
Daniel Bruce’s comments do not mention the reputation of the Police which will have fallen given the proven recent criminality in the Police, its growing reputation of a return to institutional racism to which they can now add misogyny as illustrated by the harsh policing of the Sarah Everard vigil, herself a victim of illegal police violence, and the dismissal of the Met Police commissioner for losing the confidence of the Mayor. We can also add their persistent failure to satisfactorily pursue Johnson over the Arcuri affair, other issues of corruption at City Hall and even their slow progress on Partygate.
The last time I looked at this, I said, as the train wreck that was Boris Johnson’s government approached the buffers, “ Prof. Daniel Hough also finds it strange that the UK scores so well but observes that TI are mostly interested in public sector corruption and so the cesspit that is the City of London’s money laundromat and the secrecy of the London property markets do not count against the UK’s score.”
Originally published at https://davelevy.info on January 31, 2023.
