Towards the end of last week British media was abuzz with a scandal concerning the UK Health Secretary, a position which is the equivalent of Minister of Health in many other countries, including Sri Lanka. The popular tabloid The Sun published CCTV camera footage of Health Secretary Matt Hancock kissing an aide named Gina Coladangelo, breaking the social distancing guidelines that he himself had devised and strictly enforced from 2020 onwards.
While the expose would have been devastating for Hancock on several fronts, especially due to his wife and three children being exposed to the footage, the greatest backlash came from the political opposition, the general public, and even those within the Government. To make matters worse, he had appointed Coladangelo to the position himself, which had already raised eyebrows at the time as she had been a friend of the health secretary for more than 20 years. A former lobbyist, Coladangelo was initially appointed as an unpaid adviser at the department of health and Social Care on a six-month contract in March 2020. In November it was reported that she had been made a non-executive director at the Board of Directors of the department for an annual contract of 15,000 sterling pounds, which till then Hancock had failed to disclose, leading to allegations of cronyism.
This controversial history infused the transgression exposed last week with added venom and resulted in calls for Hancock to resign immediately. Amidst the furore, Hancock issued a public apology, saying he had let people down and was “very sorry”. The UK Prime Minister’s official residence in Downing Street said that the incumbent Boris Johnson had said he accepted Hancock’s apology for breaking the rules and “considers the matter closed”.
However, for many in the public, an apology would not suffice. In the enforcement of health guidelines during the height of the pandemic in the UK, Hancock had advised people not to touch and hold their dying relatives, and the public had largely followed these instructions. The same public now felt their sacrifices had been betrayed by the Health Secretary’s dalliance with his aide. In fact, more to the point, Hancock had stated that people should stick to “established relationships”, implying that casual relationships should not be pursued during a pandemic. The footage of a married father of three kissing his co-worker hardly qualified as an established relationship, and Hancock has since been branded a hypocrite.
Prior to this controversy, Hancock had been accused of cronyism when he hired his friend Dido Harding to head England's much-criticised test and trace system as well as when he subsequently gave her a role as interim head of the UK's new health protection agency. Yet, Hancock had not faced a scandal of the scale of the one last week in his entire political career.
On Saturday (26), amidst growing calls for him to step down, Hancock submitted his resignation to the Prime Minister, who interestingly had till the last moment insisted publicly that he would not be firing Hancock nor asking him to resign. However, when Hancock did eventually submit the letter saying “we owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down”, Johnson accepted it, and swiftly appointed a successor.
This series of events late last week would make a Sri Lankan observer wonder if the same scenario played out in Sri Lanka whether the final outcome would be a resignation too. Fat chance, many would say. Sri Lanka does not have a culture of resignations in the public sector, and certainly not at the highest levels of office. In the case of the UK, the most prominent minister in the Government was still not too big to be felled by a scandal, unlike in Sri Lanka when even low level ministers escape punishment and grittily stand their ground without submitting a resignation in the face of much larger scandals.
Further enhancing the difference in the political cultures of the two nations, it must be said that Boris Johnson is not known as the most transparent or competent Prime Minister the UK has ever had, and yet, even his Ministers are guided by the long established political culture of the UK. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, has a long established political culture of minimal accountability, rare transparency, and widespread corruption. It could be said that Sri Lanka’s ministers, like those in Britain, are guided by their native political culture. Therefore, it appears that it is the voting public that must resign to the existence and perpetuation of this culture.
Resigning to the facts
27 Jun 2021
Resigning to the facts
27 Jun 2021
Towards the end of last week British media was abuzz with a scandal concerning the UK Health Secretary, a position which is the equivalent of Minister of Health in many other countries, including Sri Lanka. The popular tabloid The Sun published CCTV camera footage of Health Secretary Matt Hancock kissing an aide named Gina Coladangelo, breaking the social distancing guidelines that he himself had devised and strictly enforced from 2020 onwards.
While the expose would have been devastating for Hancock on several fronts, especially due to his wife and three children being exposed to the footage, the greatest backlash came from the political opposition, the general public, and even those within the Government. To make matters worse, he had appointed Coladangelo to the position himself, which had already raised eyebrows at the time as she had been a friend of the health secretary for more than 20 years. A former lobbyist, Coladangelo was initially appointed as an unpaid adviser at the department of health and Social Care on a six-month contract in March 2020. In November it was reported that she had been made a non-executive director at the Board of Directors of the department for an annual contract of 15,000 sterling pounds, which till then Hancock had failed to disclose, leading to allegations of cronyism.
This controversial history infused the transgression exposed last week with added venom and resulted in calls for Hancock to resign immediately. Amidst the furore, Hancock issued a public apology, saying he had let people down and was “very sorry”. The UK Prime Minister’s official residence in Downing Street said that the incumbent Boris Johnson had said he accepted Hancock’s apology for breaking the rules and “considers the matter closed”.
However, for many in the public, an apology would not suffice. In the enforcement of health guidelines during the height of the pandemic in the UK, Hancock had advised people not to touch and hold their dying relatives, and the public had largely followed these instructions. The same public now felt their sacrifices had been betrayed by the Health Secretary’s dalliance with his aide. In fact, more to the point, Hancock had stated that people should stick to “established relationships”, implying that casual relationships should not be pursued during a pandemic. The footage of a married father of three kissing his co-worker hardly qualified as an established relationship, and Hancock has since been branded a hypocrite.
Prior to this controversy, Hancock had been accused of cronyism when he hired his friend Dido Harding to head England's much-criticised test and trace system as well as when he subsequently gave her a role as interim head of the UK's new health protection agency. Yet, Hancock had not faced a scandal of the scale of the one last week in his entire political career.
On Saturday (26), amidst growing calls for him to step down, Hancock submitted his resignation to the Prime Minister, who interestingly had till the last moment insisted publicly that he would not be firing Hancock nor asking him to resign. However, when Hancock did eventually submit the letter saying “we owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down”, Johnson accepted it, and swiftly appointed a successor.
This series of events late last week would make a Sri Lankan observer wonder if the same scenario played out in Sri Lanka whether the final outcome would be a resignation too. Fat chance, many would say. Sri Lanka does not have a culture of resignations in the public sector, and certainly not at the highest levels of office. In the case of the UK, the most prominent minister in the Government was still not too big to be felled by a scandal, unlike in Sri Lanka when even low level ministers escape punishment and grittily stand their ground without submitting a resignation in the face of much larger scandals.
Further enhancing the difference in the political cultures of the two nations, it must be said that Boris Johnson is not known as the most transparent or competent Prime Minister the UK has ever had, and yet, even his Ministers are guided by the long established political culture of the UK. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, has a long established political culture of minimal accountability, rare transparency, and widespread corruption. It could be said that Sri Lanka’s ministers, like those in Britain, are guided by their native political culture. Therefore, it appears that it is the voting public that must resign to the existence and perpetuation of this culture.
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Discover Kapruka, the leading online shopping platform in Sri Lanka, where you can conveniently send Gifts and Flowers to your loved ones for any event. Explore a wide range of popular Shopping Categories on Kapruka, including Toys, Groceries, Electronics, Birthday Cakes, Fruits, Chocolates, Automobile, Mother and Baby Products, Clothing, and Fashion. Additionally, Kapruka offers unique online services like Money Remittance, Astrology, Medicine Delivery, and access to over 700 Top Brands. Also If you’re interested in selling with Kapruka, Partner Central by Kapruka is the best solution to start with. Moreover, through Kapruka Global Shop, you can also enjoy the convenience of purchasing products from renowned platforms like Amazon and eBay and have them delivered to Sri Lanka.Send love straight to their heart this Valentine's with our thoughtful gifts!