What on earth has been going on at the British Museum? For two decades it appears that Greek and other classical antiquities from the 15th century BC to the 19th century AD in store have gone missing, stolen or damaged. It is now estimated that around 2,000 items have gone missing. Their value is inestimable. Some reappear on eBay and elsewhere “for sale“. February 2021: An antiquities dealer, Ittai Gradel, notifies the museum that 3 items belonging to it – specifically…
Admittedly, it’s early days and it’s by its Legal Department (which usually manages to maintain some modicum of integrity and competence – or tries to anyway.) Small mercies. What has it done? The Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, Alex Chalk, and Attorney-General, Victoria Prentis have announced an independent inquiry into the Andy Malkinson case. This will be into all the relevant authorities: the Greater Manchester Police (1 of 5 police forces in special measures), the Crown Prosecution…
7 murdered babies. Attempts to murder 7 more. A hospital’s reputation in ruins. (Oh – and another inquiry to report on all the lessons to be learnt. Like the ones not learnt from previous inquiries. Just as these ones won’t be.) It is not too cynical to say that care for the hospital’s reputation – rather than investigating serious concerns about staff responsible for babies in their care – was almost certainly one of the main reasons why senior NHS…
She had to go. You simply cannot have the CEO of a bank unable to understand that if a journalist sat next to you at dinner asks you about a live story involving confidential details about a customer of the bank, the only possible response is “I can’t talk to you about that. Mmm, isn’t the soufflé delicious.” Especially not when in a few days time you will be presenting the bank’s results and therefore are currently in possession of…
How long before action on the persecution of innocent sub-postmasters? It is not easy for a Cabinet Minister to make a good impression or even achieve very much. Staying out of trouble is a high bar these days. Maybe much worthwhile work is being done behind the scenes without much, if any, publicity. Still, ambitious politicians need to make the best of whatever opportunities present themselves. So let’s look at one of those vying to be Tory party leader and…
On 15 June 2022 the Mayor of London issued a refreshed version of his Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy 2022 – 2025. Despite its unfortunate title (does the Mayoral budget no longer run to proofreaders? Couldn’t the word “Reducing” have been shoehorned into the name?) the document and strategy are about reducing such violence, an admirable and necessary aim. The very first page makes it clear that its target is “the perpetrators of abuse and violence“. It states clearly…
This week has seen 2 dominant politicians depart and 1 make the same sort of dangerous mistakes. The first was Silvio Berlusconi. Much like Boris he presented himself as a disruptor, there to shake up the system for the people’s benefit. This was a big fat lie. Berlusconi was a product of the sleazy clientilismo embedded in Italian politics since WW2. It was how he made his money; its collapse as a result of ferocious magistrates threatened his gains. He…
It is quite something for a government to challenge via judicial review the use of legal powers exercised by an inquiry it set up, run by a judge it appointed, with terms of reference it drafted. Why? Two broad reasons: (1) The need not to impede good governance (do stop laughing) by disclosing Ministerial/civil service communications which the government thinks irrelevant. (2) Concerns about personal communications and the private life of governmental witnesses. This latter point features quite strongly in…