Blair's "Seven Mortal Sins"
In today's Sunday Times the chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, Sir Alistair Graham, accuses Tony Blair of personal responsibility for the collapse of trust between politicians and the public through lack of interest in ethical conduct. He accused Blair of having "failed on ethical standards."
He lists seven "mortal sins" which illustrated how the prime minister has "fallen well short of the standard he set for himself." Far from keeping his promise to be "purer than pure" Sir Alistair argues that Tony Blair has "degraded politics."
The seven mortal sins listed by Sir Alistair are
1) The "Cash for Honours" scandal, which was the result of a personal decision by Tony Blair to take secret loans, ignoring the fact that this went against the spirit of his own much trumpeted legislation
2) The Iraq war, where "the way the arguments were presented to the public undermined trust on a key issue where the lives of British soldiers were at risk."
3) The BA Fraud inquiry: Sir Alistair describes as "Shocking political interference" the government intervention to end the investigation into alleged corruption over BAE sales of arms to Saudi Arabia. This has resulted in Britain under scrutiny for possibly breaches of international anti-corruption codes.
4) Appointing an independent Whitehall figure to investigate possible breaches of the ministerial code, but failing to refer a single case to it.
5) Ignoring serious concerns about the risks to the integrity of the voting system if there are inadequate safeguards for postal voting, and consequently leaving our electoral system "open to fraud."
(Fairness compels me to add that although Sir Alistair's comments seem to me to be completely fair as a criticism of the government's policy on voting arrangements between about 2003 and the May 2006 elections, the arrangements which are now being put in place for this year's local elections do appear to be a substantial improvement and significantly less open to fraud.)
6) "Undue reliance on spin" where the same story has been repeated or recycled a number of times, e.g. announcing decisions to spend the same money several times as if it were new money.
7) Politicising the civil service and blocking a proposed act of parliament that would guarantee it's impartiality.
Sir Alistair added that
"These are seven serious allegations that can personally be made against the prime minister where he's failed on ethical standards and he has to take responsibility for that."
What can I add?
One obvious comment; when David Cameron becomes prime minister at the next election I hope that one of the first acts of the incoming Conservative government will be to resurrect and pass the act guaranteeing the impartiality of the civil service which Tony Blair blocked.
He lists seven "mortal sins" which illustrated how the prime minister has "fallen well short of the standard he set for himself." Far from keeping his promise to be "purer than pure" Sir Alistair argues that Tony Blair has "degraded politics."
The seven mortal sins listed by Sir Alistair are
1) The "Cash for Honours" scandal, which was the result of a personal decision by Tony Blair to take secret loans, ignoring the fact that this went against the spirit of his own much trumpeted legislation
2) The Iraq war, where "the way the arguments were presented to the public undermined trust on a key issue where the lives of British soldiers were at risk."
3) The BA Fraud inquiry: Sir Alistair describes as "Shocking political interference" the government intervention to end the investigation into alleged corruption over BAE sales of arms to Saudi Arabia. This has resulted in Britain under scrutiny for possibly breaches of international anti-corruption codes.
4) Appointing an independent Whitehall figure to investigate possible breaches of the ministerial code, but failing to refer a single case to it.
5) Ignoring serious concerns about the risks to the integrity of the voting system if there are inadequate safeguards for postal voting, and consequently leaving our electoral system "open to fraud."
(Fairness compels me to add that although Sir Alistair's comments seem to me to be completely fair as a criticism of the government's policy on voting arrangements between about 2003 and the May 2006 elections, the arrangements which are now being put in place for this year's local elections do appear to be a substantial improvement and significantly less open to fraud.)
6) "Undue reliance on spin" where the same story has been repeated or recycled a number of times, e.g. announcing decisions to spend the same money several times as if it were new money.
7) Politicising the civil service and blocking a proposed act of parliament that would guarantee it's impartiality.
Sir Alistair added that
"These are seven serious allegations that can personally be made against the prime minister where he's failed on ethical standards and he has to take responsibility for that."
What can I add?
One obvious comment; when David Cameron becomes prime minister at the next election I hope that one of the first acts of the incoming Conservative government will be to resurrect and pass the act guaranteeing the impartiality of the civil service which Tony Blair blocked.
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