Put your Houses in order

Transparency International has just published its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) of 180 countries and it makes uncomfortable reading.

The CPI ranks the 180 countries and territories around the globe by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, scoring on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). The UK has slipped a couple of points and now ranks 20th, alongside Austria and France. It will probably come as no surprise that Denmark ranks 1st and Somalia 180th but the fact that the UK has fallen from 18th to 20th place is a worrying trend.

Given that 2024 is a massive year for elections around the globe, with four billion of the its population, in over fifty countries, due to go to the polls, it is more-than-ever important that the highest levels of probity and transparency can be evidenced to show that elections are both free and fair. Well, we can but dream. When even the world's allegedly oldest democracy, the USA, seemingly can't hold a Presidential election without risking a coup attempt, one has to wonder.

The UK's embarrassing fall in the rankings was apparently largely driven by the Covid pandemic PPE scandals but it would hardly be surprising if events like Partygate and three Prime Ministers in one year, one of whom during her seven weeks in office succeeded in crashing the economy, didn't have a negarive reputational impact.

Whoever wins the UK general election this year will have an uphill struggle cleansing the Augean Stables but they would do well to start close to home in the Houses of Parliament. The unelected House of Lords, at the best of times an indefensible institution, has found itself at the centre of several scandals, not least those involving Baroness Michelle Mone and Lord Cameron, separately and linked.

Michelle Mone was ennobled by Cameron and then found herself embroiled in a PPE procurement scandal involving her husband's company, PPE Medpro. Cameron faced his own scandal over his lobbying activities for the failed financial investment company, Greensill Capital, before being himself ennobled by Rishi Sunak to act as his Foreign Secretary from the Lords as Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton.

Meanwhile, reform of the elected House of Commons is long overdue. Any incoming Prime Minister would do well to clamp down immediately on MPs holding second jobs and directorships. The honour of being an elected representative of the people should be enough to make it a full-time job, with no distractions and no suggestion of other interests eclipsing those of their constituents. To put it in contemporary parlance, MPs shouldn't have side hustles - if the salary isn't enough to live on in London it should be increased accordingly but there should be no perception of any conflict of interest. There should also be no question of Ministerial susceptibility to outside lobbying. 

Equalites issues in Parliament need addressing and bullying and harassment in the workplace must to be clamped down on firmly. Housekeeping issues like electronic voting need to be expedited and a total decant of members must be fast-tracked to allow full restoration of the crumbling fabric of the historic Parliamentary estate. And then there's the issue of the Monarchy...

Until urgent action is taken perceptions of corruption in the UK will abound.

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