The hypocrisy of British politicians UK News

Over the past two years, it is the Covid that has had the most impact on the British population. Yes, it brought the country closer together, but it also caused people to make heavy sacrifices. Many have not attended the funerals of their loved ones or have not seen them for more than two years. Sadly, it was revealed that a government official was unwilling to make these sacrifices, both individually and collectively. Dominic Cummings went to visit a castle 300 miles from London, at a time when people were only allowed to stay in their area. Matt Hancock was filmed kissing his assistant at a time when people were being urged to socially distance themselves. Even Stanley Johnson, Boris Johnson’s father, has been seen in stores without a mask on several occasions. These were individual cases, where some argued that only individuals should be punished. But they weren’t. Hancock and Cummings both resigned to distract from government attention, but neither were fired.

Worse yet, it was recently revealed that the whole government broke COVID rules simultaneously. In December 2020, as family reunions were canceled, there were at least three Downing Street parties containing at least 50 people. The government’s hypocrisy could not be more obvious. At the same time that the public was banned from gatherings and human contact, government officials were throwing parties and ignoring other COVID rules. It could be argued that the public was doing more to stop the spread of COVID rather than the government.

Climate change has been another issue where government hypocrisy has been rife. The government has urged other countries to step up their plans to tackle climate change, while supporting plans to build new oil and gas projects in the North Sea. Not only is oil a major greenhouse gas that is largely responsible for climate change, the North Sea is also home to many animals whose habitats will be destroyed due to the higher temperatures. The government is also encouraging other countries (especially the less developed) to spend more money to prevent climate change. At the same time, the UK is spending more money buying vaccines than funding projects to reduce climate change. UK foreign policy is viewed as hypocritical by other countries, but there is individual hypocrisy when it comes to this issue as well. While the government has introduced emissions charges to discourage polluting cars, they own several private cars and planes themselves. Perhaps most ironically, Boris Johnson returned to London from the COP26 summit in a private plane, rather than by train. Imagine this: the Prime Minister returns from a conference promoting action on climate change, in a vehicle that emits so many greenhouse gases. The hypocrisy of politicians is laughable at this point.

Government hypocrisy is even visible in the House of Commons, the very center of British democracy. The government is quick to criticize or sanction the behavior of another member. This was the case with Stella Creasy, a Labor MP when she brought her child to the House of Commons. The Conservative government immediately criticized her and changed the rules, banning children of all ages from entering the House of Commons. The same cannot be said of the government’s own members. When Tory MP Owen Patterson was accused of illegal lobbying, the government was quick to defend him. Instead of suspending it for 6 weeks as the regulation says, the government has completely rewritten the regulation on the practice of lobbying.

This not only showed the government’s hypocrisy, but also encouraged other Tory MPs to break the rules because they knew they would not be punished. No one should be exempt from their own rules.

There is no easy way to fix the political hypocrisy in this country. Of course, we can still vote against the government in the next election, but that will not be enough. Perhaps the next government will be less hypocritical, but there is still a great possibility that individual politicians will be …