OP-ED: When did we stop caring?

Perhaps we never really did care
“When did we stop caring about honesty and integrity?”

A line from a BBC crime drama went viral recently afr viewers began listing ways in which the dialogue uttered by the head of a fictional police anti-corruption unit, resonates in real life. 

Considering Westminster’s all-party public accounts committee has concluded that the mind-boggling 37 billion pounds of tax-payer money spent by the UK on an incomplete test and trace system last year “made no measurable difference” to the pandemic’s progress, Boris Johnson’s government has had a remarkably easy ride on allegations of graft and incompetence.

Media coverage of the plethora of cronies and relatives found to have benefited from PPE, test and trace, and other contracts last year has often seemed muted. 

The pandemic provided Boris Johnson with an added layer of protection to add to the buffer provided by his government’s large majority. As if that is not enough, the mere threat (since withdrawn) of “Big 6” Premier League clubs joining the breakaway ESL instantly united the nation in opposition while giving Johnson a platform on which to be seen railing against greedy monopolists.