The corruption of Britain

Chris Bryant | Issue 6 | Comment, Magazine

From the Archive

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 22: European Research Group members Iain Duncan Smith and Owen Paterson leave Downing Street on October 22, 2019 in London, England. Prime Minister Boris Johnson published his Withdrawal Agreement Bill last night and will today attempt to keep to his Brexit schedule as he aims to push a series of votes through Parliament. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

The five ways in which the UK has become a more dishonest country

I was brought up to believe that Britain was different. Other countries were all terribly corrupt, but we were no banana republic, we were clean. The police, the civil service, the monarchy, they kept the country on the straight and narrow, so our politicians didn’t do dodgy deals or lie. Maybe that was a bit idealistic, yet I would bet my last rouble that if you asked most Tory MPs today about the incorruptibility of Britain, they would still hold that view. But I’m not so sure. Corruption has taken many forms over the centuries. The Tudors and the Stuarts thought the “canker of corruption” included sexual immorality, licentiousness, adultery or any other form of sinfulness that demonstrated humanity’s fallen state. Yet they happily countenanced all but the most egregious examples of crown cronies abusing monopolies. The East India Company’s monopoly continued until 1833 and Samuel Pepys’s attitude towards taking gifts from Navy clients was that as long as he was taking them from eve...

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