In 2014 black British citizens legally settled in the UK since they were children were told by the government to prove they have the right to be here. They faced deportation back to countries they could barely remember. They lost jobs, homes, savings and much more. It became known as the Windrush Scandal and it shocked the nation. But another story went untold: the story of seventy years of political panic, bad faith and racial prejudice in the corridors of power. David Olusoga, The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files, BBC 2019
If I had not already been a socialist, the astonishing events at the Daily Mirror in the last few days would have quickly made me one. They are calling the Maxwell Robbery the greatest financial scandal of all time.
He robbed some £300 million from the workers at the Mirror, either from their company or from their pension fund.
All around there is a great tut-tutting. Newspapers which only weeks ago were describing Maxwell as a ‘swashbuckling buccaneer’ now fall over one another to denounce him for what he was – a revolting crook. Nowhere is the embarrassment greater than in the City.
In 1971 a distinguished lawyer and a distinguished accountant declared after a careful examination of Maxwell’s relations with a company called Leasco that Maxwell was not fit to chair a public company.
In the early 1980s Maxwell became chairman of one of the biggest public companies in the country, the British Printing Corporation.
In July 1984, on what we on the Mirror called Black Friday, he became chairman of the Mirror Group of Newspapers – which ran five national newspapers with a combined circulation of four million copies every weekday and six million every Sunday. How could this happen? Paul Foot, article 1991, ‘They All Knew He Was a Crook’
Scandal of Brexit is not that we’ve failed, but that we have not tried. Boris Johnson
We have eight priests hanging around the lingerie section … We’re talking national scandal. Father Ted Christmas Special: A Christmassy Ted, Channel 4 1996
By the early ’70s [David] Stirling had become a successful businessman. He arranged enormous arms deals, and his mercenaries kept many third-world leaders in power. Almost single-handedly Stirling had created the foundations of Britain’s modern privatised foreign policy. It is a hidden world of vicious guerrilla wars fought by British mercenaries, a world that occasionally surfaces in scandals like the Sandfire affair. It all began with Stirling selling Britain’s military power to countries he approved of. Adam Curtis, The Mayfair Set I: Who Pays Wins ***** Channel 4 1999
In Britain a series of scandals revealed that dozens of innocent people had been held in jail. Some for over 15 years: they included the Guildford 4 and the Birmingham 6. Most of them were Irishmen who had been accused of being members of the IRA and planting bombs in English cities. Every time they had tried to prove their innocence, they had been blocked by some of the most senior figures in the British establishment despite overwhelming evidence of false confessions and fake evidence. Adam Curtis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head V: The Lordly Ones ***** BBCiplayer 2021
Frank Bough was one of Britain’s favourite celebrities. The safe reliable beloved uncle Frank. But it turns out TV’s Mr Clean had a secret life and a taste for illicit sex and illegal drugs. Bough’s spectacular fall from grace shocked the nation. Frank Bough: National Treasure, National Disgrace, Channel 5 2023
Rumours are circulating about his behaviour on the set too.
Unbelievably, just a year after being fired form the BBC, Bough returns to out TV screens. One of the astonishing comebacks in the history of British entertainment. He is fronting six o’clock live on London Weekend Television. ibid.
Bough’s very public falls from grace in 1988 and 1992 are a turning point. ibid.
One way or another it must burst into scandal … It’s a constitutional scandal we must avoid. Edward & Mrs Simpson IV: The Divorce, Prime Minister to Archbishop, Thames 1978
The biggest newspapers in the country are being dragged through the courts. Opposing them are a small group of campaigners and whistleblowers working for hundreds of claimants. Scandalous: Phone Hacking, captions, BBC 2023
‘It would be quicker to say who I didn’t hack.’ ibid. journalist
Thousands claim that their phones were hacked and secrets stolen. ibid. caption
Phone hacking first came to the public’s attention in 2006 when a News of the World journalist and a private investigator, Glenn Mulclaire, were arrested for listening to the voicemails of members of the royal household. Five years later it was revealed that Mulclaire had also hacked hundreds of other people including murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. ibid.
In late 2011 the government launched the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press. ibid.
In September 2014 the Mirror Group admitted for the first time they had hacked phones. ibid.
News Group Newspapers are now fighting to bring an end to the waves of civil litigation against them. ibid.
There are over 700,000 autistic people in the UK. Autistic people are six times more likely to experience a mental health crisis than the general population and nine times more like to take their own lives. Dispatches: Locked Away: Our Autism Scandal, The Lancet article, Channel 4 2023
So why are we locking up some autistic people in hospitals when it can cause them harm? ibid.
This is the story of one of the biggest corporate scandals since the global financial crisis. The story of an Australian who wooed the rich and powerful on his way to becoming a billionaire. Before the business Greensill built came crashing down. Four Corners: Greensill Capital, Youtube 45.07, ABC 2021
The fallout has sparked a political scandal and investigations of suspected corporate fraud. ibid.
‘A card saying he’s the prime minister’s [Cameron] special advisor.’ ibid.
Supply chain finance … Greensill Capital marketed itself as a company that could use technology to bring supply chain finance into the 21st century. ibid.
As the Gupta family group alliance bought steel-mills throughout Europe, Greensill capital leant it billions. ibid.
Greensill Capital created some complicated financial products to help fund its lending. ibid.
In Germany the finance regulator began probing Greensill bank and discovered the bank had massive lending exposure to Gupta’s GFG Alliance. ibid.
The truth is something many politicians want to conceal or cover up. The Ibiza Affair: Uncovered, investigative journalist, Sky Documentaries 2021
The Ibiza Affair was easily the greatest political scandal in Austria’s history. ibid. dude
It concerns a video in which we see Austria’s sitting vice-chancellor, Mr Strache, doing things he shouldn’t be doing. ibid. investigative journalist
Heinz-Chrisian Strache was the embodiment of success for right-wing populists. ibid. old boy
This is the man who always claimed he was clean. ibid. investigative journalist
The video was made in the summer of 2017, a few months before the elections in Austria. ibid.
He was secretly recorded making corrupt promises … The plan was to donate a huge sum of money to an FPO-related association without anyone knowing … He’d pass all of Austria’s biggest road construction campny’s contracts on to her. ibid.
Private purchases, and especially grocery shopping, he simply wouldn’t pay for. We had to advance the money from our own salaries. ibid. ex-securit officer
What we saw was a negotiation that lasted seven hours. ibid. investigative journalist
In the end we were sure that we have taken all necessary precautions. ibid.
When the news of the coalition government’s end was announced people started cheering. ibid.
When Jeremy Thorpe strode on to the political stage, many thought he’d be the greatest Liberal leader in 50 years. A dazzling showman, witty and energetic, he effortlessly balanced royal friendships with radical principles. A decade later he stood charged with conspiracy to murder his former homosexual lover, and his public life lay in ruins. Secret Lives: Jeremy Thorpe, Channel 4 1996
The young Norman Scott was a groom at the stables, and Thorpe was a frequent visitor. ibid.
Thorpe denies that he ever had an affair with Scott but his letters testify to a close relationship. ibid.
Thorpe had chosen an unstable lover with a history of mental illness. ibid.
The cover-up was working and Thorpe’s career prospered. In 1967 his talent for campaigning won him the Liberal leadership. He was still only 38. Soon afterwards he decided it was time to get married. ibid.
In 1971 the explosive secret of Norman Scott was revealed to the Liberal Party. ibid.
Ultimately, it wasn’t the shooting [of Scott’s dog] which began to implicate Thorpe but the money which paid for the conspiracy. ibid.
His [Thorpe] friends deserted him one by one and became prosecution witnesses. ibid.
Remarkably, the trial was postponed to allow Thorpe to stand in the 1979 election. ibid.
Thorpe’s fall from grace finally brought him to the Old Bailey. ibid.