Politicians no longer use their own money as bribes; they use yours instead
Bribery has always been the main concern of opponents of political corruption. The virtually non-existent threat of fake voters turning up at ballot stations and pretending to be legitimate citizens is as nothing when set against the crooked politician’s promise to buy your vote. Since parliament passed the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act in 1883, the UK has not seen as concerted an attempt to rig elections as the venality initiated by the Johnson administration.
Its bribery is practised in public view without the police intervening or anything like the level of public outrage a robust democracy would muster. Only a country in Britain’s turgid decadence could view with complacency the communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, and a junior minister in his very own department approving payments to each other’s constituencies from a government fund that was meant to help left-behind towns, not Jenrick’s comfortable Tory seat.
