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Integrity matters

05 July 2024 / John Gould
Issue: 8078 / Categories: Opinion , Public , Governance
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John Gould on why serious work is required to re-set the collective moral compass of those in Government & Parliament

Few people can truthfully say that they have never lied or cheated when it hasn’t much mattered. Whether it’s everyday excuses or jumping queues, it’s usually not thought of as that serious. If Euro 24 is anything to go by, rolling around on the floor clutching some vulnerable body part to feign injury is considered to be more professional performance than cheating.

Sometimes, however, cheating does matter. Society works because those with responsibility to others are not expected clandestinely to put their own interests above their duty. This is both a moral and a functional question. It is not just morally right to act with integrity, but also the failure to do so may undermine the general confidence needed to make our public systems operate.

The ongoing election betting scandal relates to a number of interlocking public interests. There are economic and social objectives in the regulation of gambling to ensure that games

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NEWS
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
David Lammy, Ellie Reeves and Baroness Levitt have taken up office at the Ministry of Justice, following the cabinet reshuffle
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