The last ten days has been historic! The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, resigned after his colleagues in the cabinet stood up to him and asked him to step down! Some resigned themselves and one was sacked! Who could have thought this would have happened in the midst of the Russian war in Ukraine and the country grappling with the aftermath effects of Brexit and the pandemic!
The issue was all about whether or not Boris Johnson could be trusted to lead the Conservative party and the country as the PM! And the answer by some was no! Why? Because of various scandals and his response to the media when his poor judgments came to light! And yet this man had achieved so much over the last two and a half years of his leadership! Nobody had raised these issues to such level when the Brexit campaign had breached the law and was fined or when ministers had affairs on their partners! Our leaders however finally demanded a higher standard of integrity and honesty from the PM!
The remaining question is who can be regarded as an honest politician? Who can be trusted to lead this ship safely in the midst of the storm! I remember an MP once said politicians have to lie! At a Channel 4 programme on 15th July 2022 when 5 Tory candidates presented their leadership case to the public, the majority of people didn’t raise their hands when the presenter asked them whether having heard the candidates the audience could trust any of them!
The tension between Kemi, Liz and Penny was apparent; the former two indicated Penny was behind the self-identification of gender in 2018 which Penny denied!
Is there really a space in the British politics for a politician to tell the truth and survive? How can a politician be brave, tell the truth and be trusted? Are we looking for a perfect person who is totally honest or is there a scope for forgiving a politician who lies and if there is such a scope to what extent can the public be forgiving? Should we forgive them every time they apologise or set boundaries and say enough is enough?!
I will touch on various aspects of honesty in politics in my future posts!
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