Peter Rhodes on scandals, tragedies and how blaming politicians has replaced Acts of God
The scandal over botched operations at GOSH, Great Ormond Street Hospital, will inevitably lead to that great British institution, a public inquiry. Yet we can already guess the findings. A culture of fear and deference. Junior staff terrified of reporting their fears. Management preferring to look the other way. Why not scrap an inquiry and save a few million?
Meanwhile, Tony Blair was interviewed recently by Sophie Ridge who asked whether tragedies such as Grenfell Tower, the Post Office scandal and the national disgrace of contaminated blood indicated “a failure of leadership” in government.
Blair replied: “This is a difficult thing to say, but . . . however good your system is and however well-intentioned it is, and however hard people work, they're going to make mistakes.” For this moment of blinding frankness and common sense, Blair has been denounced as “despicable” by the Fire Brigades Union. But he's right and they're wrong.
