Corrupt Cameron!

By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana

Maybe, it is time to add a new phrase to the political lexicon: ‘A corrupt Cameron’ to mean a corrupt politician! Perhaps, doing a Cameron can mean using one’s position and influence for doing shady deals, purely for personal gain! I am making these suggestions, based purely on the unveiling drama of political corruption in the UK, the leading actor being the former Prime Minister, David Cameron. Yes, it is the very same David Cameron who opted to go to Jaffna, ‘kissing children’ for votes, instead of being at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo, in November, 2013!

We are well aware that our political class has become progressively corrupt, since independence from the British, and critics have often made comparisons with politicians of the West to tell us how bad our lot is. However, it looks as if the rapidly-advancing juggernaut of capitalism is making the rest of the world, including Britain, to follow suit. The continuing pandemic has laid bare the vast extent of corruption in most countries. A number of accusations have been made about the award of very fruitful contracts to friends and relations of Ministers in the UK. Of course, corruption comes in many forms and I have referred to in my previous writings about the unwarranted, unjustified campaign against the only vaccine affordable for poor countries, Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, spearheaded by Chancellor Merkel and President Macron. But Cameron’s actions are in a totally different league!

“We all know how it works. The lunches, the hospitality, the quiet word in your ear, the ex-minister and ex-advisers for hire, helping big business find the right way to get its way”

Guess who said this? It indeed was David Cameron! He said so in a speech, on lobbying, shortly before he became Prime Minister. Just two years after being forced out of that post, his position becoming untenable after the Brexit fracas, what he did was exactly that. Worse still, it looks as if he laid the foundation for his misdeeds, whilst still in office.

Cameron allowed financier Lex Greensill to work from his office, in Downing Street, as a senior adviser on a scheme of dubious value to the government. Two years later, Cameron became a senior adviser in Lex Greensill’s Greensill Capital, a supply chain finance company which thrived on giving loans to companies to tide over till their invoices were paid. His annual salary was one million dollars, for part-time work! On top of that, he got bonuses and shares which he sold at a profit.

Greensill Capital got its funds from investors who were paid back with interest once the short-term loans were repaid. However, Greensill Capital overstretched itself by giving excessive loans and collapsed in March due to the insurers refusing to cover the loans. Many investors were left with huge losses but Cameron, in a matter of two or three years, made a total killing of 10 million dollars, according to the BBC Panorama programme, broadcast on 9th August.

Before the collapse, Greensill Capital, tried to get a new investor: the UK government. David Cameron did his utmost to make it happen. He sent 56 messages, lobbying ministers and senior civil servants. He approached the Chancellor of the Exchequer and wanted the Bank of England to invest more than £10bn of taxpayers’ money in Greensill’s loans. The Bank of England turned Greensill down.

However, prior to this, in June 2020, Greensill had been approved as a lender, under a government scheme, designed to get emergency cash to companies affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Unpaid loans, under this scheme, may result in a loss of around £320 million to the British taxpayer, it is claimed.

David Cameron stands accused of personally promoting Greensill Capital to other investors, too, as he appeared with Lex Greensill, the company founder, in an event promoted by the Swiss Bank, Credit Suisse, in 2019. Those convinced by Cameron to invest have paid a heavy price whilst he has laughed his way to another bank!

There is more: Cameron has helped a genetics firm to get a government contract, it is alleged. It has emerged that he encouraged Health Secretary Matt Hancock to speak at a conference, co-hosted by the firm, Illumina, shortly before it won a £123m government contract for genetic sequencing, without competition.

Interestingly, in spite of all this, it is claimed by the government that no one seems to have broken rules as there are huge gaps in regulations, though they were supposed to have been strengthened after previous scandals. The best known is the ‘cash-for-questions’ scandal of 1994, when a lobbyist gave ‘brown-paper bags’ stuffed with money for MPs to ask questions which resulted in the collapse of John Major’s government. Tony Blair’s government was tainted by the ‘Bernie Eccleston affair’ after it exempted Formula 1 from the tobacco advertisement ban in 1997, as Bernie Ecclestone had contributed a million pounds to party funds.

We are well aware that our politicians are hypocrites. Ranil objects to the Army conducting the vaccination campaign but has his jab at the Army Hospital, and Sajith, who promised that he would have his jab only after every eligible citizen had theirs, suddenly had the jab on the advice of his treating physician! But Cameron’s hypocrisy beats all this. Shortly before an anti-corruption summit in London, in May 2016, in a conversation with the Queen, Cameron was overheard saying:

“We’ve got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain… Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby had intervened to say: “But this particular president is not corrupt… he’s trying very hard” confirming that the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari was elected the previous year after vowing to fight corruption.

Neither Cameron nor the other prime ministers have faced any sanctions. Perhaps, our politicians can learn a lesson or two, from their British counterparts, how to legitimize corruption. In any case, without a doubt, they will continue doing Camerons!