There is an episode that sticks in the mind. It was 1996 and publication of the Scott Report into the export of arms to Iraq, contrary to declared UK government policy.
For four years, Sir Richard Scott, a Lord Justice of Appeal, had presided over a judicial inquiry into the secret weapons sales. Finally, we – the media, Parliament, public – were going to receive his findings. On the press side, we were promised the report would break new ground regarding open government – the evidence submitted to the inquiry would be published via what was then a new, exciting format, as a CD-Rom.
At my newspaper at the time, we excitedly sent a dispatch rider to Whitehall to pick up the disks. When he came back, we inserted them in the computer. And there was … mostly nothing. Where much of the material should have been there were screeds of what appeared to be black marker pen. It had been redacted.
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Ah, but it was published. You could imagine Sir Humphrey from Yes Minister dreaming up the wheeze in response to pressure for greater transparency – and smiling in that knowing, familiar manner.
The Economist commented that Sir Richard "exposed an excessively secretive government machine, riddled with incompetence, slippery with the truth and willing to mislead Parliament".
In his report, he characterised the nature of British government thus:
"The main objectives of governments are the implementation of their policies and the discomfiture of opposition; they do not submit with enthusiasm to the restraints of accountability … governments are little disposed to volunteer information that may expose them to criticism … The enforcement of accountability depends largely on the ability of Parliament to prise information from governments which are inclined to be defensively secretive where they are most vulnerable to challenge."
Two shocking episodes
That was 28 years ago. Since then, we’ve suffered numerous scandals, all of which have continued to follow the same pattern. There’s the incident, outrage, appointment of a senior judge to preside over an inquiry, a drawn-out interrogation, publication of their report with a series of recommendations, acceptance by the government of the day of their findings and expressions of contrition all round.
The report is shelved, little happens, we lurch on to the next disgraceful incident and the whole palaver is repeated.
Nothing changes. No heads roll. Those who were responsible for this latest stain on the national psyche have long since left the stage. No prosecutions are brought. Monetary compensation is offered – and often, that only creates a separate row as to whether it’s enough and how it should be awarded.
Currently, even by the lamentable standards of UK government, the country has been rocked by two, simply shocking episodes. They’re different from each other and can lay claim, in their own way, to be the worst ever.
One is the Post Office sub-postmasters’ scandal, when thousands of workers were accused of fraud and many were prosecuted, resulting in convictions, personal ruination and in some cases, suicide. When, all along it was not theft that was to blame but faulty IT. The real cause was pointed out but officials chose to ignore it, pursuing innocents regardless. Only after decades of dogged campaigning was the truth confirmed.
If that was not bad enough, we’ve now had the tainted blood scandal. In delivering his report this week, the inquiry chairman, Sir Brian Langstaff, was withering in his contempt of officialdom and its arrogance, despite being confronted by the unfolding, seemingly impossible to avoid, horror of more than 3,000 deaths from receiving infected blood. Sir Brian spoke of a "pervasive and chilling" cover-up in the NHS and government.
The victims were betrayed by a collective "lack of openness, transparency and candour", accompanied by "elements of downright deception" that included the shredding of documents.
Sir Brian blamed an "instinctive defensiveness" of successive governments. "To save face and to save expense, there has been a hiding of much of the truth."
In the Commons, Rishi Sunak gave a "whole-hearted, unconditional apology" on behalf of the state. It was a scandal that "should shake our nation to the core".
It does, Rishi, but the question remains, does it shake government – Whitehall and its political bosses – to the core? Theresa May, who ordered the contaminated blood inquiry when she was prime minister in 2017, put it well: "Sir Brian has highlighted what is a devastating and abject failure of the British state.
"Medical professionals, civil servants, politicians – all of whom felt their job was to protect their own reputation rather than to serve and look after the public who they were there to serve."
Sunak pledged the Conservatives will "work urgently across government and public organisations" to ensure "nothing like this can ever happen again".
Misplaced superiority
The problem goes deep. It entails the tackling of an institutional mindset, evident in the Post Office scandal and countless previous others, and now this.
For what Sir Richard Scott said in 1996, read Sir Brian Langstaff today. For the same people who thought it clever to issue a CD-Rom containing barely anything, witness those who lied and fudged to the poisoned blood and Post Office inquiries.
That’s what must disappear. We can laugh at Sir Humphrey (still clearly just as pertinent) but it isn’t funny.
There is a profound arrogance at the heart of the British establishment, one that shows itself in a disconnect between state and people, between those at the top, and they include senior civil servants, who hail from a background of privilege, and the little person. The former is always right and the other knows nothing and must be wrong.
It’s a misplaced superiority that feeds on itself, so that even if those complaining hold similar qualifications, they are dismissed.
Stop talking and start doing
Once the threshold of government is crossed, as soon as the Official Secrets Act is signed, an omerta takes hold. It’s the same grip that is exerted on the first day at an elite public school or in the welcome at a top university or dinners at the Inns of Court or the Members’ Tea Room in the House of Commons.
What is striking about the Post Office and blood tragedies is that those who perpetrated the cover-up, who stuck to the rigid denial, were not stupid people. They’d allowed themselves to be consumed by endemic disregard, such that the failure to appreciate and to listen was embedded in the DNA of the organisation than with them individually.
It’s this, that if he is true to his word, Sunak, and presumably his successor, must attempt to shift. It requires wholesale demolition and rebuilding, with new recruitment policies, encouragement of whistle-blowers and injection of that vital ingredient, respect. Inclusivity not exclusivity must become the watchword.
Such is the scale of the task that it’s a tall order. Certainly, we’ve come nowhere since Sir Richard Scott fired his own diatribe decades ago.
There must, surely, be a moment when we stop talking and start doing. Banish Sir Humphrey, put an end to the ifs and buts. This should be it.
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
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Winners
Best Men's Player of the Year: Kylian Mbappe (PSG)
Maradona Award for Best Goal Scorer of the Year: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
TikTok Fans’ Player of the Year: Robert Lewandowski
Top Goal Scorer of All Time: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Best Women's Player of the Year: Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)
Best Men's Club of the Year: Chelsea
Best Women's Club of the Year: Barcelona
Best Defender of the Year: Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus/Italy)
Best Goalkeeper of the Year: Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG/Italy)
Best Coach of the Year: Roberto Mancini (Italy)
Best National Team of the Year: Italy
Best Agent of the Year: Federico Pastorello
Best Sporting Director of the Year: Txiki Begiristain (Manchester City)
Player Career Award: Ronaldinho
RESULTS
1.45pm: Handicap (TB) Dh80,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winners: Hyde Park, Royston Ffrench (jockey), Salem bin Ghadayer (trainer)
2.15pm: Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner: Shamikh, Ryan Curatolo, Nicholas Bachalard
2.45pm: Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Hurry Up, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
3.15pm: Shadwell Jebel Ali Mile Group 3 (TB) Dh575,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Blown by Wind, Xavier Ziani, Salem bin Ghadayer
3.45pm: Handicap (TB) Dh72,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Mazagran, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
4.15pm: Handicap (TB) Dh64,000 (D) 1,950m
Winner: Obeyaan, Adrie de Vries, Mujeeb Rehman
4.45pm: Handicap (TB) Dh84,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner: Shanaghai City, Fabrice Veron, Rashed Bouresly.
Brief scores:
Toss: Sindhis, elected to field first
Pakhtoons 137-6 (10 ov)
Fletcher 68 not out; Cutting 2-14
Sindhis 129-8 (10 ov)
Perera 47; Sohail 2-18
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Price, base Dh485,000 (GranTurismo) and Dh575,000 (GranCabrio)
Engine 4.7L V8
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Fuel economy, combined 14.3L (GranTurismo) and 14.5L (GranCabrio) / 100km
Our family matters legal consultant
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MIDWAY
Produced: Lionsgate Films, Shanghai Ryui Entertainment, Street Light Entertainment
Directed: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Ed Skrein, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Aaron Eckhart, Luke Evans, Nick Jonas, Mandy Moore, Darren Criss
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Sunday's games
All times UAE:
Tottenham Hotspur v Crystal Palace, 4pm
Manchester City v Arsenal, 6.15pm
Everton v Watford, 8.30pm
Chelsea v Manchester United, 8.30pm
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
NBA Finals results
Game 1: Warriors 124, Cavaliers 114
Game 2: Warriors 122, Cavaliers 103
Game 3: Cavaliers 102, Warriors 110
Game 4: In Cleveland, Sunday (Monday morning UAE)
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
JAPANESE GRAND PRIX INFO
Schedule (All times UAE)
First practice: Friday, 5-6.30am
Second practice: Friday, 9-10.30am
Third practice: Saturday, 7-8am
Qualifying: Saturday, 10-11am
Race: Sunday, 9am-midday
Race venue: Suzuka International Racing Course
Circuit Length: 5.807km
Number of Laps: 53
Watch live: beIN Sports HD
GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
THE DEALS
Hamilton $60m x 2 = $120m
Vettel $45m x 2 = $90m
Ricciardo $35m x 2 = $70m
Verstappen $55m x 3 = $165m
Leclerc $20m x 2 = $40m
TOTAL $485m
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
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- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
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Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
