The 'Cameron case' reveals the lack of control of revolving doors in the United Kingdom

The British House of Commons is not willing to allow only the fox to review the chicken coop rules.

British President Boris Johnson has ordered an internal investigation into the attempts to influence exerted by former Prime Minister David Cameron over some members of the Government, on behalf of the bankrupt financial Greensill.

However, Downing Street this week pulled its strings for the conservative majority to vote against the parliamentary inquiry proposed by the Labor opposition.

Two commissions, the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs and the Ethical Standards Commission, have decided to start investigating on their own a scandal that highlights the weakness of the British system's controls on revolving doors between politics and business.

Johnson's immediate reaction, as soon as his predecessor Cameron released a public statement grudgingly admitting his miscalculations, was more of a damage control exercise than an in-depth review of a system with many loopholes.

It was even partly a personal reckoning, after his previous boss had put the current prime minister back and a half in his newly released memoir,

For The Record

.

The book reflects an opportunistic Johnson who joined the Brexit adventure, according to Cameron, to boost his political career.

The continuing ramifications surrounding the Greensill affair have revealed that

lobbying

in the UK is unfolding on a fuzzy ground.

This same week the news emerged that Bill Crothers, a senior government official at the head of the Acquisitions and Purchasing Department, was hired by the bankrupt finance company without having to abandon his public position.

Crothers had communicated the decision to his superiors, and obtained their authorization.

Two months later, in November 2015, he left the public service permanently and focused entirely on his new job.

In theory, he did not commit any illegality.

As Cameron did not commit it by texting on Greensill's behalf to the Minister of the Economy, Rishi Sunak, or promoting an appointment, including drink, between his new boss, the Australian financier at the helm of the company, and the Minister of Health, Matt Hancock.

In fact, the Johnson government refused to allow the company to participate in the aid and credit guarantees put in place to soften the impact of COVID-19.

The whole episode, however, has embarrassed many Conservative MPs and scandalized the Labor opposition.

And it has shown that the current incompatibility laws, implemented paradoxically during the Cameron administration, are clearly insufficient.

All lobbyists must appear today in a register of

lobbies

, and any politician or senior official must wait two years before joining a post in the private company that has any relation to the task previously performed in public administration .

Those rules are not enough to control lone actors who, like Cameron, use their contacts and influence to open doors.

And the controlling body for possible incompatibilities, the Advisory Committee for Appointments in Management Positions (Acoba, in its acronym in English), is an institution without enforcement or sanctioning capacity.

"I do not intend to sound too abrupt, but at the moment there do not seem to be any type of borders or limits," its current director, Erick Pickles, admitted this Thursday with resignation before the Parliamentary Commission for Public Administration.

"We have the problem with unregulated lobbies, with secret lobbies that obtain a series of unfair advantages," he pointed out.

"All of our political careers have been built through some kind of contact or influence, but it becomes a bad thing when done without proper regulation and transparency."

Both Cameron himself and the Minister of Economy, Sunak, have already advanced their willingness to appear before the deputies when they are summoned.

They both feel legally secure enough to show their faces.

"As a former prime minister, I now understand that communications with the government should only be done through the most formal channels, so as not to lead to misinterpretations," Cameron has admitted in his public statement.

“But the context was important,” he added, “and at the time, the government was making quick decisions about how best to support the real economy.

I appreciated any information in real time and any possible dialogue ”.

Cameron took advantage of this "window of dialogue" to favor a company that he advised, and of which he had a significant package of shares whose value, after bankruptcy, has volatilized.

More information

• Johnson orders investigation into former prime minister Cameron's role as advisor to finance company Greensill

Johnson's Chief of Staff and Chief Executive of the prestigious

British

Civil Servants

(Senior Officials), Simon Case, has issued a strict but revealing order of the current lack of control.

Before the end of the week, all those public servants who have a double job - something, on the other hand, allowed in the peculiar British system - must notify their superiors.

Labor leader Keir Starmer has found a vein in the Greensill scandal, after a year in which his only object of opposition was the management of the pandemic, with the precautions that came with pressing on such a delicate health crisis.

“This scandal is just the tip of the iceberg.

We see the return of

Tory

corruption

, with

shady

contracts, privileged access and jobs for cronies, "said Starmer in the House of Commons this Wednesday to a Johnson who insisted on extolling the advantages of a fluid relationship between public administration and private companies although, he admitted, "in this case the borders were not very clear."