Is the UK becoming more corrupt? A conversation between Norman Baker and Duncan Hames

Two former Liberal Democrat MPs – Norman Baker (Lewes, 1997-2015) and Duncan Hames (Chippenham, 2010-15) – talk about the growth of corruption in the British political system.

Duncan Hames is now the director of policy at Transparency International UK and is married to the former Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson.

Norman Baker writes of this conversation on YouTube:

The UK has now slipped to 20th in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, a sharp fall from just outside the top ten as recently as 2021, and is sitting at its lowest ever score since the Index was revamped in 2012.

Duncan makes the point that one of the reasons for the rise in the perception of corruption in the UK is the sense of impunity that some figures felt. It is notable and worrying that we have only found out about the shenanigans of Peter Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor through the release of the Epstein Files in the United States.

Meanwhile, the revelation that Nigel Farage personally received £5 million from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, money he claims he had no obligation to declare on the grounds it was “purely private” and “wasn’t political in any sense at all,” is precisely the kind of story that illustrates why transparency in public life matters so much.

As Duncan and I discussed, the absence of proper accountability has real consequences for ordinary people, from the billions squandered on dodgy PPE contracts during the pandemic, to the way in which unchecked lobbying allows vested interests to bend government policy to their will.

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Simon Nixon reviews Hettie O'Brien's The Asset Class: How Private Equity Turned Capitalism Against Itself: "This is an industry that takes the private part of its name with deadly seriousness. It usually exercises total control over its operations, deploying financial muscle rather than charm to enforce submission and cloaking almost every aspect of its business – the provenance of its money, the performance of its companies – in secrecy. Yet over recent decades, private equity has quietly captured vast swathes of the economy and accumulated political power for which it is rarely held publicly accountable."

"For a long time, peatlands were treated as marginal, soggy places at the edge of more useful land. Peatlands are now becoming central to climate regulation, water security, biodiversity and the livelihoods of many people who live on and around them." Alice Milner on her research into peatlands and tackling climate change.

Norman Baker explains why buses in central London are slower than their horse-drawn counterparts were more than a century ago. He also has suggestions for speeding them up.

Danny Chambers is campaigning against the cruelty often involved in breeding what are, to my eye, ugly animals. "Across the UK, more and more dogs and cats are being bred to look fashionable or cute. But this can come at a serious cost to their health and welfare."

"The film encompasses many influences – neorealist working-class documentary in its early Belfast set street scenes; poetic realism in its studio-bound aspects and fatalism; noir thriller; and expressionist reimagining of Greek myth, as a fatally wounded Johnny is left behind in the botched escape and a rogue’s gallery of the city’s denizens alternately help and hinder his path through the Underworld entries, bars and rain-slicked slums of a darkened, almost Dickensian city." Tim Pelan sings the praises of Carol Reed's Odd Man Out (1947).

"As time went on, I felt more in control of the thing, and stopped fearing that I was going to show myself – and all womenkind – up, by passing out from the heat, more relaxed and more appreciative of the experience. The engine is indeed a star. There were waving people on every bridge, and we passed a campsite with lots more waving people. I got so keen on waving back to them that I almost forgot my job." Stephanie Gaunt learns to drive a steam locomotive.

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Sienna Rogers says No. 10 sleepwalked into a crisis on welfare cuts: "The media rounds of ministers only deepened the frustration of dissatisfied MPs. Cabinet members repeatedly stated that the threshold changes to PIP eligibility were about getting people back into work, yet employment does not preclude receiving PIP; in fact, PIP was seen by the rebels as a key way of enabling disabled people to work."

Jenna Corderoy and Peter Geoghegan report that British police forces are hiding their collaboration with the US spying technology firm Palantir: "In both 2024 and 2025, multiple FOI requests about Palantir’s police contracts  - including from Liberty and the Good Law Project - were referred to the CRU [Central Referral Unit], which advised forces to withhold information."

"The shifting sands of politics are making electoral reform more likely. But almost certainly not before the 2030s. And much will depend on how the party system evolves in the years to come." Alan Renwick reacts to the rising support for electoral reform in opinion polls.

Russia is waging a silent war across Europe, not with tanks, but with propaganda, disinformation, AI and political influence, says Tetiana Toma.

"Like many enduring classics, Jaws - while in essence a rootin-tootin creature feature - is ideologically malleable, capable of meaning different things at different times. Is it a post-Watergate rumination on political malfeasance? A comment on laissez-faire capitalism? With the film now 50 years old, this month marking its half-centenary anniversary, it surprises me that more hasn’t been made about it as a commentary on responses to the climate crisis, given how strikingly this fits with its core messages." Luke Buckmaster argues that Jaws predicted the politics of climate inaction.

Elizabeth Ammon lists six things we learnt from the first test against India.

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Josh Self on why Reform UK remains a mystery.

The government is blocking the release of all information about Prince Andrew’s decade as a taxpayer-funded trade envoy. This is the mark of a banana republic and not a mature democracy. argues Andrew Lownie.

"We tend to either blame them (parents need to use Tough Love, children should try harder) or say that there’s something wrong with their brain using the medical model (they have a 'mental disorder' or 'special educational needs'). After 'Blame', the medical model comes as a huge relief. It effectively says, 'It’s not your fault. There’s something wrong with your brain. You can’t help it'." Naomi Fisher argues that we need to think far beyond diagnosis when seeking to understand neurodiversity. 

Michael Hindley pays tribute to Jacques Delors, the architect of European unity. The British government, by contrast declined to send anyone to his funeral.

"It was during the anti-Poor Law campaigns of 1836-38 that we see the return of George Hort the class warrior. He now appears regularly in the local press attacking Liberals at meetings for their betrayals of the 1832 Great Reform Act and the pernicious treatment of the poor as a result of the 1834 New Poor Law or representing individuals at Board of Guardians tribunals and in the magistrates’ courts." Steve Marquis celebrates Leicester's forgotten working-class hero George Hort.

Retired Martin recommends half a dozen Derbyshire pubs.