All Saints’ Day, 2023
The Leveson Inquiry ended badly: the recommendations of the report were botched and then ignored.
But the Inquiry was not without value: the Inquiry placed into the public domain substantial evidence about the nature of the news media that otherwise would have been lost. As such the Inquiry was a boon for the public understanding of the media, even if it was a failure as a means of bringing about regulatory change.
We cannot know yet whether any recommendations of the current Covid Inquiry will be similarly of little or no import. But, as with the Leveson Inquiry before it, it is a boon of the public understanding of those with power – though this time it is revealing the doings and goings-on of those with political power instead of media power.
This is because the Covid Inquiry has “teeth” with its powers to obtain evidence. And without such teeth there can never be real accountability. The sound of accountability are the complaints and greivances of those being forced to disclose evidence against their will.
Of course, the Covid Inquiry has not got all the evidence it wants – and some of the excuses for non-disclosure seem at best implausible. But the Inquiry has got far more than any attempt by parliament or the press to hold ministers and officials accountable.
And there is no reason to believe that the actions and attitudes revealed by the disclosed evidence before the Covid Inquiry is exceptional: one can only presume that, say, Brexit was dealt with in the same way. That evidence, however, is forever hidden from us.
But the Covid Inquiry is giving us a snapshot of the nature of political power in Whitehall in the early part of this decade – and one which will assist historians for generations.
Part of the value of statutory inquiries is not in the results but in the process and what is revealed in the process – and, perhaps paradoxically, that is why many public inquiries are also indicative of the failure of our political institutions and media to otherwise hold the state properly to account.
Can we please have a proper Brexit enquiry? It’s the least we deserve.
Beautifully put👏❤️
Listening to Counsel giving evidence (witnesses barely speak, it seems) the Inquiry seems an expensive way to read out loud what is already in the witness’s statement, How can the cost of that be justified?
The COVID enquiry is the least this country can do for the bereaved families who lost loved ones through the massive mismanagement of the pandemic. It may not end in proper justice but if by shining a spotlight on those individuals who were / are clearly unfit for public office ( together with their many enablers) means that current Conservative members and voters begin to think twice then it is worth every single penny it is costing.
Unfortunately, the toxic culture observed from beneath the Downing Street / C`abinet Office rock pervades all the way down to the District and even Parish Council level [in my recent experience], and there is absolutely no effective way for a citizen to hold any of these people to account. This being the case, why would they behave any differently?
The Local government Ombudsman – the supposed “Citizen’s Champion” agains bureaucratic incompetence and venality is infected by the same incompetence, lack of moral compass or indeed, any need to be held accountable.
The judges at Judicial Review [apparently] are equally unconcerned by irrational [illegal] behaviour, incompetence or plain and simple corruption and fraud, even when linked to a Human rights issue.
The malaise even spreads to the Bar Standards Council, apparently happy to do nothing in response to allegations of Fraud, corruption and deliberate undermining of the Democratic Process by a Barrister.
The police again, uninterested in even looking at written evidence that shows corruption and Fraud in Local Government.
Apparently, none of this is anything to do with a constituent’s MP either… Too busy shining up the Greasy Pole…
Is it any surprise that the country is in the mess it is?
Does anyone know what they do with all those rubber boats in Dover? I’m thinking of seeking asylum in France.
The court of history has verdicts and judgements but no power to punish, and fails to deter.
Having a bigger grill pan and a hotter grill seems to pay dividends, more grill pans and hotter grills.
As for lessons learned, appropos pandemics non whatever. The next one wil probably be 50+ years away, this one long since forgotten. As for the operation of politicians, no surprises.
There is one lesson, what happens if you depend on running your health service assets ‘hot’. This can be very successful and keep costs down – until something nasty comes along.