As Farage sacks an acolyte for his ‘shameful’ words, how far is too far for the high priest of toxic politics? | Martha Gill The Reform leader cynically pushes the boundaries of how far he can go without alienating too many of the voters he needs – but it’s a perilous calibration, says politics and culture writer Martha Gil...

New piece from me on Farage, and what his trial-and-error flip-flopping tells us about the new line of tolerance in British politics

For this week’s Observer I wrote about Britain’s strange relationship with plastic surgery

What surprised me is that any doctor - even e.g. a psychiatrist with no surgical experience at all - is allowed to perform facelifts or liposuction in the private sector

Psychiatrists giving facelifts? Cosmetic surgery needs so... As demand exceeds supply in the UK, too many practitioners are wielding needles and knives without the relevant skills

Piece here: observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

For this week’s Observer I wrote about Britain’s strange relationship with plastic surgery

What surprised me is that any doctor - even e.g. a psychiatrist with no surgical experience at all - is allowed to perform facelifts or liposuction in the private sector

Mind-boggling from @marthagill.bsky.social

observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

In our national parks sewage flows while the funds for co... Underfunded, over-farmed and politically sidelined, Britain’s most treasured landscapes need more than protection

Great piece from @marthagill.bsky.social on the state of Britain’s National Parks. Shocked highest levels of sewage discharge are on Dartmoor. Good account of historical reasons park authorities have such limited powers to manage greatest threats to park ecologies.

observer.co.uk/news/columni...

‘They are treated with the most appalling hostility’: the... The number of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Britain has soared, and many are being put at risk having got here

I’ve got two articles in this week’s Observer. One is a big piece of reporting on lone asylum seeking kids arriving in Britain - a group is often missed out of the conversation observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Altruism is holding Britain together | The Observer Volunteers keep vital services afloat and offer an antidote to our ever more isolated society

The second is on a little noticed counter to the narrative that social bonds are unravelling. By almost every indicator we are becoming more isolated, polarised and antisocial. Except one. Absolutely loads of people are volunteering observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Altruism is holding Britain together | The Observer Volunteers keep vital services afloat and offer an antidote to our ever more isolated society

The second is on a little noticed counter to the narrative that social bonds are unravelling. By almost every indicator we are becoming more isolated, polarised and antisocial. Except one. Absolutely loads of people are volunteering observer.co.uk/news/columni...

‘They are treated with the most appalling hostility’: the... The number of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Britain has soared, and many are being put at risk having got here

I’ve got two articles in this week’s Observer. One is a big piece of reporting on lone asylum seeking kids arriving in Britain - a group is often missed out of the conversation observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Nuclear power is the future Britain rejected. Now it’s ti... Energy projects in the UK are among the world's most expensive as we insist on reinventing the wheel

observer.co.uk/news/opinion... The anti-science obsession of British politics has done UK great harm, Good new Observer taking this seriously by @marthagill.bsky.social

How can we change the culture of cover-ups? First, accept... From grooming gangs to the NHS, scandals show us that whistleblowers are the exception – and dysfunction and complicity are rife

My piece observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

This means our current approach - inquiries to root out offenders and bad practice - don't take the source of the problem

To prevent cover-ups, we would need to totally transform the workplace

Yes. Huge incentives, notably keeping your own job, in staying quiet about this stuff. Great examples in ents where various alarming individuals keep working for years after it’s known they are dangerous because the dynamic is if you speak up you will be the one who loses your job

Why do people choose to cover up scandals?

My theory is that it's not 'bad apples', or 'dysfunctional institutions', as we like to pretend

Every modern workplace contains the incentives for coverups

Exactly right. Any substantial organisation will be likely to circle the wagons and cover up failings.

Within it there will be some people who should know better but don't recognise their own complicity. And others who do but will lose their livelihood if they speak up.

How can we change the culture of cover-ups? First, accept... From grooming gangs to the NHS, scandals show us that whistleblowers are the exception – and dysfunction and complicity are rife

observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

We virtue signal when a cover-up comes to light with expressions of shock and disgust - "how on earth could that happen?"

We fool ourselves that rooting out bad apples and installing new rules will help

The truth is these things rarely makes a difference...

1. Professionals want to be team players, fit in, trust others, be loyal and please those in authority

2. Responsibility is diffused, which makes it easy for people to rationalise away their part in the process

3. Habit eventually makes the harm seem normal

We convince ourselves that institutional cover-ups are rare: the result of uniquely terrible people or uniquely dysfunctional systems

The ugly truth: cover-ups are the RULE

They are the result of normal human dynamics that come with every workplace

Maternity scandals, grooming gangs, the infected blood scandal, the Hillsborough disaster, the post office scandal, Grenfell, Windrush, sexual abuse by priests...... wherever we find serious harm we almost always find large numbers of people choosing to conceal it

I call it "the cover-up rule"

Thank you!

This is very good - it skewers the way institutions' leaders will convince themselves that bad behaviour can't happen because rules.

But we need to think more about how things actually work. We - especially senior managers - need to think much more in terms of who has power, and who really doesn't.

How can we change the culture of cover-ups? First, accept... From grooming gangs to the NHS, scandals show us that whistleblowers are the exception – and dysfunction and complicity are rife

observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Cover-ups are not the exception, they are the rule.

What if the incentives pushing people towards complicity are features of MOST work places?

My piece for @observeruk.bsky.social

We have enormous capacity to be shocked by cover-ups.

Each time, we conclude they must be the result of uniquely malign characters or uniquely dysfunctional systems - and commission inquiries to rootle these out

Yet they happen again and again

I've written about institutional cover-ups in this week's
@ObserverUK
.

From grooming gangs to the post office scandal, wherever we find serious harm we almost always find very large numbers of people choosing to conceal it

Why? I think we've been getting it wrong

Enjoyed doing @lbc.co.uk cross questions just now with @simonmarksfsn.bsky.social - great fun

Far from being on their uppers, Britain’s upper classes s... Despite vastly increased competition from other social groups, the aristocracy remains as influential in this century as it ever was

observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

When activists rail against undeserving elites, this is surely a group that should come under attack

But somehow, it doesn't. Why?

My theory in this week's Observer