Dominic Grieve the Attorney General has instigated a debate about corruption in public life, naming and shaming specifically the Pakistani community as one section of our society who pose a threat to the well being of our representative democracy by their cultural affinity to corruption in their own country, which has been imported by “them” to the UK.
I guess this raises several points of interest centred mainly on his lack of overwhelming evidence. Something I thought an Attorney General might feel it incumbent upon him to provide when making such a statement. Interestingly, the points of evidence for his assertions are not answered directly by Mr Grieve in either his Telegraph interview or the ITV news item. He merely makes this bold statement.
Pakistani culture is endemically corrupt and that’s why we see this replicated in Britain.
There is no evidence provided other than isolated cases of election corruption, highlighted as being in communities with large Pakistani communities and therefore I (The Attorney General) can now make a stereotypical, limited assumption about all Pakistanis in this country.
I work in many countries around the world in Rule of Law and Governance and have had many conversations with colleagues who decry the fact that the work they do is made more difficult by the corruption in the countries we work in. This has happened in South America, Africa, The Caribbean, The Far East, The Middle East and other places including Eastern Europe. Please note, none of my colleagues have alluded to or addressed the corruption in British society, it always seems to be “Johnny Foreigner”.
Dominic Grieve has led a privileged life and inexorably risen through the party ranks. This may or may not be due to his public school upbringing, Oxbridge education and high society connections. I will leave you to decide whether he is really in touch with mainstream British society at all levels, cultures, nationalities and religions.
The questions for me are
“What does he know of ‘endemic corruption’ in Pakistan?”
“What does he know of the Pakistani community in UK”
Is he saying that second, third and fourth generations of British Pakistanis are slavishly following their forefathers who originally came to Britain for a better life in replicating their own endemically corrupt way of life back in the old country and that this represents a terrible threat to the traditionally whiter than white approach of native Britons to conducting their affairs in public office.
Has he so recently forgotten?
- MP’s expenses
- The LIBOR scandal
- The Leveson enquiry
- The Iraq Dossier
Do I need to go on? This may come as a surprise to you Mr Grieve but people are corrupt, no matter what their colour, culture, nationality or class. People in public life often fall short of the standards required of them by us the electorate. I would ask you to look back on your life and ask yourself this question.
“Have you ever put your self interest before your personal ethics?”
I think we all know what the answer probably is.
I believe that people, whoever they are and whatever their backgrounds are intrinsically honest and truthful. Where they are not, the law is there to deal with that minority, impartially and fairly, irrespective of their personal characteristics. As the Attorney General and a public servant I expect the same from you and in your position, you have the opportunity to enhance the law or not.
In making these statements you have created distrust, fear and loathing of others based on their community characteristics.
As a Minister, you have an obligation to lead all parts of the society and not to single out one section for approbation and admonishment. You have set back the integration agenda in one fell, crass swoop by 10-15 years.
Recently, one of your own party members highlighted how alienated people generally feel from your party. A party led by a group of societal elite, out of touch with the ordinary living and working lives of the electorate. You have compounded that tenfold by this unfeeling and ill thought out uttering.
Your party and you may well feel the backlash of this in 2015.
Since writing this article I see that Dominic Grieve has apologised. I am sure that must make everything OK now?