I’m not British. There are many things that I admire about the United Kingdom.
This is the nation that produced Agatha Christie, Jane Austen, George Orwell, JK Rowling, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Aldous Huxley, JRR Tolkien.
But the one thing that disturbs me is the unbelievable level of corruption.
In Britain, politicians can legally raise millions of pounds from one single individual. Private corporations, including foreign corporations, are allowed to give large amounts of money to political parties. Several members of the UK parliament currently work as consultants and lawyers for large corporations such as Thames Water or HSBC.
Compare this to France.
In France, no individual is allowed to give more than 7000 pounds to a political party. All corporations are banned from giving money to political parties. All members of parliament are banned from having second-jobs. And if you break these rules, you can be criminally prosecuted.
Why did France pass these tough rules ? Corruption scandals
I’m not British. There are many things that I admire about the United Kingdom.
This is the nation that produced Agatha Christie, Jane Austen, George Orwell, JK Rowling, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Aldous Huxley, JRR Tolkien.
But the one thing that disturbs me is the unbelievable level of corruption.
In Britain, politicians can legally raise millions of pounds from one single individual. Private corporations, including foreign corporations, are allowed to give large amounts of money to political parties. Several members of the UK parliament currently work as consultants and lawyers for large corporations such as Thames Water or HSBC.
Compare this to France.
In France, no individual is allowed to give more than 7000 pounds to a political party. All corporations are banned from giving money to political parties. All members of parliament are banned from having second-jobs. And if you break these rules, you can be criminally prosecuted.
Why did France pass these tough rules ? Corruption scandals
France had one President (Nicolas Sarkozy) sell access to his donors
We also had one powerful MP (Francois Fillon) working as a lavishly paid consultant for huge corporations
When the French media revealed these scandals, the French political class was so embarrassed that it forced them to take action.
The British had similar corruption scandals.
David Cameron was caught selling access to Downing Street in exchange of money:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/mar/26/david-cameron-private-dinners-tory-donors
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/9168388/Cash-for-access-David-Camerons-private-dinners-for-donors-revealed.html
Boris Johnson was also caught selling access to Downing Street in exchange of money:
https://www.ft.com/content/8c6041ff-a223-43e9-9e45-53c3f7cf47f7
Yet the British political class did… absolutely nothing !!! No reform. Nothing.
This is really disturbing.