Beyond the headline, there is some strong stuff from Brown about how common and easy corruption is in the UK. I’m not sure I agree with all his suggestions, but there are some important criticisms there.
> [Brown] said the government needed to introduce an “anti-corruption commission” with “powers to seize assets”, among a raft of other measures to clear up public life.
> Brown said the government needed to act quickly to bring in the recommendations relating to standards in public life that he laid out in his report “A New Britain: Renewing our Democracy and Rebuilding our Economy”.
> … “There is a systemic failure to do proper vetting, to go through the proper procedures and to actually have, in my view, what should be public hearings for anybody who is going to be in a senior position representing the British government.”
> … He added there needed to be a crackdown on “the systematic abuse of power by lobbyists” and said there should be a ban on MP’s second jobs
For some reason I don’t imagine this will get much traction. We have a system that is almost set up to allow for and encourage corruption. People are only complaining about it here because it is Mandelson (politically convenient) and Epstein. Seeing e.g. Badenoch cause a stir about this when she was routinely leaking details of Cabinet meetings to the press for her own political gain is a bit hypocritical. Or there was that time Kwasi Kwarteng ‘leaked’ his plans for a ‘fiscal statement’ to a bunch of his ‘former colleagues’ (a bunch of financiers) who partied with him as the economy was crashing and they were making a huge amount of money from it.
That said, I’m not sure “US-style confirmation hearings for new government ministers” is the solution – they don’t work particularly well in the US, mostly becoming political theatre and ending up with a party-line vote for anyone controversial.
Also worth noting that Brown is supporting Starmer, for now (although I guess he has to – if Starmer shouldn’t have appointed Mandelson US Ambassador, Brown probably shouldn’t have made him a lord and Business Secretary).
Traditional-News7677 on
And who sold our gold reserves to his mates at a knock down price, he ripped the country off, old one eye
Puzzleheaded_Agent17 on
It beggars belief that there have been no resignations over this yet. Especially starmer.
BardLand on
US-style confirmation hearings are a bad idea, they are rarely about proper scrutiny, and frankly most MPs aren’t qualified to scrutinise candidates properly. They haven’t worked in the European Parliament either for the Commissioners. Ultimately party numbers decide who gets confirmed.Â
BizzarePlatypus on
Yeah, Starmer did wrong by bringing him back and whoever made him a lord needs investigating too.Â
BlackSpinedPlinketto on
Mandelson did Brown dirty, so I’m expecting more knife sticking from him – and good for him.
kickedoutatone on
Can someone Tl;Dr this entire situation for me, please? I try to avoid political news (because it’s mostly dire), but everywhere I see, I see people blaming starmer for something mandelson has done regarding epstein?
Why is starmer getting flack instead of mandelson? What am I missing here?
la1mark on
If we removed the corruption I’m not sure we would have any parties left. Reform and the tories would be done.
jenny_905 on
Broon is going hard on this because he is of course implicated.
Sudden-Conclusion931 on
I’m delighted to hear someone from the summit of the Westminster bubble say this stuff out loud. It s been crystal clear to me that a lot of the outrage in Parliament about Mandelson is confected, and that he kept getting given big jobs not because everyone somehow believed his lies, but because that degree of venality and corruption is normal or at least common place. His lifestyle and career is exactly what many of them aspire to. I’m certain that if you went through the private correspondence of virtually every former Minister who has gone on to make their living ‘advising’ and ‘lobbying’ for big business and finance, you’d find that they all have just as much explaining to do as Mandelson and that the types of leaks and collusion that he was involved in are the norm. It would certainly explain why our governments have been so catastrophically inept over the oast 20 years.
uttercross2 on
Why don’t these politicians say it out straight? Mandelson is a traitor, and he should be treated as such.
TheCharalampos on
So Brown correctly identifies the issue but thinks having some political theatre is the solution?
Content-Dream-1907 on
Brown is right to call out the systemic rot, but the real issue is that our entire political culture treats this kind of influence-peddling as a perk of the job, not a crime. His proposed commission sounds good on paper, but without genuine political will to dismantle the networks of power, it’s just another talking point. We need to stop being shocked by individual scandals and start demanding a system that makes them impossible.
AngryTudor1 on
What this government should be doing right now is what the Democrats didn’t do- putting into law the safeguards to stop Reform from being able to easily trash our norms, standards and “constitution” when they take power.
Not to stop them ruling or legislating. But to stop them from being able to gut the country and rig the system forever in their favour
Sonchay on
One thing I find weird about the UK, is we find things that work in certain circumstances and then just don’t apply them elsewhere where it makes sense (like how half the employee tax code is smooth and proportional, then the other half has cliff edges). Professionals in healthcare and other industries are expected to sign onto a professional register, agree to a code of conduct and be held to a standard that is higher than that which the law or employers apply by an independent body. Do it for politicians, so people like Mandelson, Rayner, Mone, Johnson, Jenrick and anyone else from across the political spectrum who breaks ethical conduct is struck off and prevented from practicing. It is weird that we establish a system for Doctors, Solicitors and so on, yet for politicians, we collectively shrug our shoulders and say “whaddyagonna do?”. If we are worried about democracy then have the sanctions trigger a by-election, or incorporate constituency voting or a jury system into the process. But the honour system or politicians regulating each other has to go.
downsouthcuz on
Im not a fan of Labour or Gordon Brown but he’s absolutely right on this.
neonwhite224 on
yep. and mi5 and the Labour Party knew, they just didn’t care until everyone else did as well
LSL3587 on
The thing with Mandelson is the small amount of money that seems to have gone to him (subject to the Police confirming the $75K and $10K and not finding more). Mandelson does seem to have also greatly valued going to the Island and acting as if he was very rich. I am sure that some of Mandelson’s supposedly ‘legit’ consulting work was also helped by his connections gained via Epstein and by allegedly passing him confidential information.
I do wonder exactly what Tony Blair got up to and is still doing. Even if Tony Blair’s consulting millions were all legal I am sure they were not all moral.
Tony Blair has gained many tens of (possibly hundreds of) millions from his insider knowledge and connections. And just like the Trump sons, Tony’s family seems to be enjoying the financial benefits of their connection. Tony Blair’s son estimated wealth is £350 million – based around a business that offers alternatives to University (which his father pushed so hard on).
Isn’t it weird how some politicians seem to become very rich during and soon after leaving office – whether that be the stereotype African leader with gold missing from their country’s treasury (or evidence of large bribes received), or the likes of Putin, to those from ‘modern democracies’ like some powerful US politicians who have extraordinary success stock picking on the stock market to the millions from ‘consultancy’ as well as the company directorships that come with stock options etc worth millions. I wonder if the politicians from ‘modern democracies’ are just better at hiding their corruption and of suppressing press coverage.
If only all these politicians could make the countries they ran as well off as they become themselves.
irishshogun on
Easy first step is ban any communication from politicians, staffers and civil service that is not on offical emails. Anytime you are caught it’s a huge penalty or exposure
Only_Tip9560 on
I bet Gordon is fucking livid! There was never any love lost between them.
DarthFlowers on
If you think Farage is the answer to this then sorry but with all due respect you should be sectioned.
paul_h on
Book needed – Gordo and other effed-over former collaborators of Mandlesom
win_some_lose_most1y on
You just cant allow anything. that it. NO SECOND JOBS. no meetings, no lunches, no private emails, no gifts.
fuck ‘delcaring gifts under x amount’, if you are found to have a single penny over the salary, you got straight to the oubliette.
Basic-Week-9262 on
He didn’t betray his country. Most of them didn’t. Their country is Israel and when pressed about their loyalties, they openly admit it. I’m surprised that people don’t seem to understand this.
24 Comments
Beyond the headline, there is some strong stuff from Brown about how common and easy corruption is in the UK. I’m not sure I agree with all his suggestions, but there are some important criticisms there.
> [Brown] said the government needed to introduce an “anti-corruption commission” with “powers to seize assets”, among a raft of other measures to clear up public life.
> Brown said the government needed to act quickly to bring in the recommendations relating to standards in public life that he laid out in his report “A New Britain: Renewing our Democracy and Rebuilding our Economy”.
> … “There is a systemic failure to do proper vetting, to go through the proper procedures and to actually have, in my view, what should be public hearings for anybody who is going to be in a senior position representing the British government.”
> … He added there needed to be a crackdown on “the systematic abuse of power by lobbyists” and said there should be a ban on MP’s second jobs
For some reason I don’t imagine this will get much traction. We have a system that is almost set up to allow for and encourage corruption. People are only complaining about it here because it is Mandelson (politically convenient) and Epstein. Seeing e.g. Badenoch cause a stir about this when she was routinely leaking details of Cabinet meetings to the press for her own political gain is a bit hypocritical. Or there was that time Kwasi Kwarteng ‘leaked’ his plans for a ‘fiscal statement’ to a bunch of his ‘former colleagues’ (a bunch of financiers) who partied with him as the economy was crashing and they were making a huge amount of money from it.
That said, I’m not sure “US-style confirmation hearings for new government ministers” is the solution – they don’t work particularly well in the US, mostly becoming political theatre and ending up with a party-line vote for anyone controversial.
Also worth noting that Brown is supporting Starmer, for now (although I guess he has to – if Starmer shouldn’t have appointed Mandelson US Ambassador, Brown probably shouldn’t have made him a lord and Business Secretary).
And who sold our gold reserves to his mates at a knock down price, he ripped the country off, old one eye
It beggars belief that there have been no resignations over this yet. Especially starmer.
US-style confirmation hearings are a bad idea, they are rarely about proper scrutiny, and frankly most MPs aren’t qualified to scrutinise candidates properly. They haven’t worked in the European Parliament either for the Commissioners. Ultimately party numbers decide who gets confirmed.Â
Yeah, Starmer did wrong by bringing him back and whoever made him a lord needs investigating too.Â
Mandelson did Brown dirty, so I’m expecting more knife sticking from him – and good for him.
Can someone Tl;Dr this entire situation for me, please? I try to avoid political news (because it’s mostly dire), but everywhere I see, I see people blaming starmer for something mandelson has done regarding epstein?
Why is starmer getting flack instead of mandelson? What am I missing here?
If we removed the corruption I’m not sure we would have any parties left. Reform and the tories would be done.
Broon is going hard on this because he is of course implicated.
I’m delighted to hear someone from the summit of the Westminster bubble say this stuff out loud. It s been crystal clear to me that a lot of the outrage in Parliament about Mandelson is confected, and that he kept getting given big jobs not because everyone somehow believed his lies, but because that degree of venality and corruption is normal or at least common place. His lifestyle and career is exactly what many of them aspire to. I’m certain that if you went through the private correspondence of virtually every former Minister who has gone on to make their living ‘advising’ and ‘lobbying’ for big business and finance, you’d find that they all have just as much explaining to do as Mandelson and that the types of leaks and collusion that he was involved in are the norm. It would certainly explain why our governments have been so catastrophically inept over the oast 20 years.
Why don’t these politicians say it out straight? Mandelson is a traitor, and he should be treated as such.
So Brown correctly identifies the issue but thinks having some political theatre is the solution?
Brown is right to call out the systemic rot, but the real issue is that our entire political culture treats this kind of influence-peddling as a perk of the job, not a crime. His proposed commission sounds good on paper, but without genuine political will to dismantle the networks of power, it’s just another talking point. We need to stop being shocked by individual scandals and start demanding a system that makes them impossible.
What this government should be doing right now is what the Democrats didn’t do- putting into law the safeguards to stop Reform from being able to easily trash our norms, standards and “constitution” when they take power.
Not to stop them ruling or legislating. But to stop them from being able to gut the country and rig the system forever in their favour
One thing I find weird about the UK, is we find things that work in certain circumstances and then just don’t apply them elsewhere where it makes sense (like how half the employee tax code is smooth and proportional, then the other half has cliff edges). Professionals in healthcare and other industries are expected to sign onto a professional register, agree to a code of conduct and be held to a standard that is higher than that which the law or employers apply by an independent body. Do it for politicians, so people like Mandelson, Rayner, Mone, Johnson, Jenrick and anyone else from across the political spectrum who breaks ethical conduct is struck off and prevented from practicing. It is weird that we establish a system for Doctors, Solicitors and so on, yet for politicians, we collectively shrug our shoulders and say “whaddyagonna do?”. If we are worried about democracy then have the sanctions trigger a by-election, or incorporate constituency voting or a jury system into the process. But the honour system or politicians regulating each other has to go.
Im not a fan of Labour or Gordon Brown but he’s absolutely right on this.
yep. and mi5 and the Labour Party knew, they just didn’t care until everyone else did as well
The thing with Mandelson is the small amount of money that seems to have gone to him (subject to the Police confirming the $75K and $10K and not finding more). Mandelson does seem to have also greatly valued going to the Island and acting as if he was very rich. I am sure that some of Mandelson’s supposedly ‘legit’ consulting work was also helped by his connections gained via Epstein and by allegedly passing him confidential information.
I do wonder exactly what Tony Blair got up to and is still doing. Even if Tony Blair’s consulting millions were all legal I am sure they were not all moral.
Tony Blair has gained many tens of (possibly hundreds of) millions from his insider knowledge and connections. And just like the Trump sons, Tony’s family seems to be enjoying the financial benefits of their connection. Tony Blair’s son estimated wealth is £350 million – based around a business that offers alternatives to University (which his father pushed so hard on).
Isn’t it weird how some politicians seem to become very rich during and soon after leaving office – whether that be the stereotype African leader with gold missing from their country’s treasury (or evidence of large bribes received), or the likes of Putin, to those from ‘modern democracies’ like some powerful US politicians who have extraordinary success stock picking on the stock market to the millions from ‘consultancy’ as well as the company directorships that come with stock options etc worth millions. I wonder if the politicians from ‘modern democracies’ are just better at hiding their corruption and of suppressing press coverage.
If only all these politicians could make the countries they ran as well off as they become themselves.
Easy first step is ban any communication from politicians, staffers and civil service that is not on offical emails. Anytime you are caught it’s a huge penalty or exposure
I bet Gordon is fucking livid! There was never any love lost between them.
If you think Farage is the answer to this then sorry but with all due respect you should be sectioned.
Book needed – Gordo and other effed-over former collaborators of Mandlesom
You just cant allow anything. that it. NO SECOND JOBS. no meetings, no lunches, no private emails, no gifts.
fuck ‘delcaring gifts under x amount’, if you are found to have a single penny over the salary, you got straight to the oubliette.
He didn’t betray his country. Most of them didn’t. Their country is Israel and when pressed about their loyalties, they openly admit it. I’m surprised that people don’t seem to understand this.