Readers respond to Alexei Navalny’s message from prison on steps that the west can take to tackle corrupt regimes
Alexei Navalny rightly asks: “If corruption is preventing us from finding solutions to the problems of the ‘big agenda’, has the time perhaps come to raise it to a priority on that agenda?” (Only action against corruption can solve the world’s biggest problems, 19 August).
In respect of the UK, this seems unlikely to happen because corruption – “the exploitation of an official position for personal gain” – is rife in the UK government also, albeit in a slightly less serious form than in certain other countries. For what is the funnelling of government contracts to manifestly incompetent companies run by cronies, or by political donors, if it is not corruption? What is the exercise of ministerial prerogative to benefit some individual, who shortly thereafter makes a donation to party funds, if not corruption?
