Corrupt politicians are levers for bad people

The idea that the very obvious corrupt behaviour of Boris Johnson does not really matter because it's only a tiny amount of money compared to, say, the sums involved in dealing with CV19 and its fallout is false. It's false because politicians, especially senior politicians, are force-multipliers, or levers, and this means they must behave far better than other people.

Let us imagine that I am in charge of some country which I run in a rather nasty and authoritarian way – no, I'm not Boris Johnson, I run my country with the aid of people who, for instance, are quite happy to poison or lock up people who disagree with me, or just arrange for them to vanish. (Boris Johnson probably doesn't do that, at least not yet.) And I'd quite like to buy some influence in some other countries, so, for instance, I could stop them taking away all the funds and houses I keep in them for when the roof falls in on me.

So what do I do? Well, I notice that Boris Johnson – a man who is more-or-less in charge of one of these countries – is always going on about how short of money he is, and has very expensive taste in furnishings, holidays and partners. So I front him a little money, which he accepts. And I buy him a holiday, which he accepts, and I buy him other things, which he accepts. And then, one day, I turn around and say, 'well, I've kept impeccable records of all this, and these records might be a little inconvenient to you if they became public, so perhaps you'd like to help me in turn a little'.

And now, by spending perhaps less than a few million pounds, I own the Prime Minister of the UK, and through him I exert enormous influence over the UK. How very convenient for me, and how cheap that was.

This probably hasn't happened, at least not yet¹, but it is the reason why political figures, especially senior political figures must be ruthlessly open about financial matters. Which Boris Johnson ... isn't.