Tuesday, April 05, 2022
Ethics and law-breaking in the Johnson government
Just a short post today. The Guardian reports that the government’s former ethics chief has apologised for her “error of judgment” after she was fined by police for attending a party in the Cabinet Office during lockdown.
The paper says MacNamara was fined in connection with a leaving party held on 18 June 2020 to mark the departure of a private secretary, Hannah Young, who was moving to New York to take up a role with the British consulate general. She is said to have provided a karaoke machine for the event, which is understood to have been one of the most raucous under investigation.
Not only did I not know that the Tory government had an 'ethics chief', it is the first I am aware that they even knew the word existed. But how ironic is it that the woman employed to keep the Prime Minister on the straight and narrow, herself succumbed to the culture of partying he promoted during the pandemic?
The paper says MacNamara was fined in connection with a leaving party held on 18 June 2020 to mark the departure of a private secretary, Hannah Young, who was moving to New York to take up a role with the British consulate general. She is said to have provided a karaoke machine for the event, which is understood to have been one of the most raucous under investigation.
Not only did I not know that the Tory government had an 'ethics chief', it is the first I am aware that they even knew the word existed. But how ironic is it that the woman employed to keep the Prime Minister on the straight and narrow, herself succumbed to the culture of partying he promoted during the pandemic?
