Imagine if paying your taxes was somehow optional.
Or that you’d only need bother doing it if someone chapped on the door and asked for them.
Where you might roll the dice and gamble on paying a penalty notice when the door rings knowing there’s a decent chance it won’t.
There would be bedlam, the coffers of the country’s exchequer would deplete rapidly and the Chancellor, the head of Her Majesty’s Treasury would have their head in their hands wondering how they were going to keep the lights on and pay for public services.
Except, the very guy rolling the dice on whether to pay his tax bill or not was one Nadhim Zahawi – a prominent Conservative politician and member of the UK Government’s cabinet.
‘Perception of abuse of power is so damaging’
He was in fact the chancellor, the second most senior politician in the country, at the time he was negotiating his tax bill with the government department he was in charge of.
The abuse of power, or at the very least the perception of the abuse of power, here is enormous and so damaging.
Damaging to Rishi Sunak who promised a government that put accountability, integrity and professionalism at its heart and devastating to any hope the Conservatives had of dispelling the belief, established on their watch, that there’s one rule for them and another for everyone else.
Much of the news agenda here is about the fact Mr Sunak has referred the whole matter to his ethics advisor – a post vacant for much of Boris Johnson’s time in office – rather than sack him on the spot.
I happen to think that was the right thing to do because had he given his colleague his jotters without due process (because Mr Zahawi disputes he’s down anything wrong) – all the political heat would fall at his feet.
However, if his ethics advisor says the rules were broken, he has a degree of political cover. Something you desperately need when you are as weak in office as this prime minister is.
There’s something else burning in the background here and that’s the precedent it sets for any future investigations.
If the PM defers to an independent advisor and accepts their advice, he surely starts a pattern of taking the same action each time.
So when it comes to the thorny issue of the various inquiries and investigations in to his once-friend and now foe Boris Johnson, for crimes against the Covid rules, following this pattern gives him the professional breathing space to effectively end Mr Johnson’s political career and hopes of returning to office without bringing hellfire to his own front door.
He can say he was simply following the rules and doing the right thing.
‘Rules matter’
It feeling a like an eon ago that following the rules and doing the right thing was the very least we could hope and expect of our political leaders.
A decade ago politicians were forced from office for failing to pay their council tax bills on time.
Ten years on, we seem to be in a position where the chancellor himself can negotiate a million here and a million there on his tax bill and potentially survive it.
Rules matter. When they are broken, there should be consequences and they should apply equally to all of us. It’s the very basis of trust.
That was the great danger of Partygate and the PM breaking lockdown rules; the fear that if he did, we all would.
Those same principles apply now too to the former chancellor and his taxes.
If he’s guilty, he’s got to go. He should pay a penalty otherwise the rest of us may not pay at all.
Chris Hipkins is good egg
The Labour Party in New Zealand just achieved something its UK equivalent could only ever dream of – a seamless transition of power from one leader to the next.
On Tuesday, Chris Hipkins was sworn in as the country’s 11th Labour Prime Minister just seven days after Jacinda Ardern resigned, surprising both the people she represented and followers of politics across the globe.
I happened to have met Chris when he was serving as New Zealand’s Education Minister back in 2017 so can vouch for him as a good egg.
He’s a well-known figure in New Zealand, not just for his record in office but because of verbal banana skin he hit during the pandemic.
WATCH: "I acknowledge the important nature of my role."
Chris Hipkins is sworn in as the 41st prime minister of New Zealand, less than a week after Jacinda Ardern's surprise resignation https://t.co/IZCKed03CS pic.twitter.com/S2njnoCqAk
— Bloomberg (@business) January 25, 2023
You see he was the stand-in guy for the PM when she was unavailable for those regular press conferences politicians did during lockdown.
And in the midst of an enthusiastic run down of the rules, he declared people should use their time to go outside and get some exercise.
Except instead of telling them to stretch their legs, he told them to go to the park and spread their legs.
This led to the whole country reeling in giggle fits and a very popular line in pandemic t-shirts and tote bags. Kia kaha or all the best Mr Hipkins.
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