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| Successive scandals seed mistrust in central pillars of our democracy | Successive scandals seed mistrust in central pillars of our democracy |
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| A year ago this coming Monday James (Jimmy) Wilson Vincent Savile died aged 84. In life, over a period spanning decades, the Leeds-born and bred celebrity is now accused of committing a massive con-exercise on the public. | A year ago this coming Monday James (Jimmy) Wilson Vincent Savile died aged 84. In life, over a period spanning decades, the Leeds-born and bred celebrity is now accused of committing a massive con-exercise on the public. |
| Support for numerous charities and good causes, including the Leeds General Infirmary in his home city, led many to consider him eccentric, but with a good heart. Such was the respect people had for him that he was given what amounted to a lying in state at the Queen's Hotel in Leeds, with 5,000 mourners passing his coffin before his burial on a Scarborough hilltop. | Support for numerous charities and good causes, including the Leeds General Infirmary in his home city, led many to consider him eccentric, but with a good heart. Such was the respect people had for him that he was given what amounted to a lying in state at the Queen's Hotel in Leeds, with 5,000 mourners passing his coffin before his burial on a Scarborough hilltop. |
| A year on, that legacy has turned into one of trauma and destruction. As police investigate the sickening possibility that he led a double life, involved in repeated child abuse, Scotland Yard has said that it is investigating around 300 potential cases. Across the country, men and women have come forward to tell heart-wrenching stories of times when on public property, including that of the BBC and the National Health Service, Savile allegedly abused some of the most vulnerable children in society in the knowledge that that same society was unlikely to believe their word against his. | A year on, that legacy has turned into one of trauma and destruction. As police investigate the sickening possibility that he led a double life, involved in repeated child abuse, Scotland Yard has said that it is investigating around 300 potential cases. Across the country, men and women have come forward to tell heart-wrenching stories of times when on public property, including that of the BBC and the National Health Service, Savile allegedly abused some of the most vulnerable children in society in the knowledge that that same society was unlikely to believe their word against his. |
| At the time of his death, the Guardian's obituary noted: | At the time of his death, the Guardian's obituary noted: |
| Many considered that there was something strange about Savile. His enthusiasm for spending quite so much time in the hospital environment had a touch of the macabre about it. | Many considered that there was something strange about Savile. His enthusiasm for spending quite so much time in the hospital environment had a touch of the macabre about it. |
| This comment goes to the heart of the case: that while rumour and speculation existed, Savile had done enough to ensure that those who had their concerns did not feel they had sufficient evidence to make public accusations of the kind that, with hindsight, they should have made. | This comment goes to the heart of the case: that while rumour and speculation existed, Savile had done enough to ensure that those who had their concerns did not feel they had sufficient evidence to make public accusations of the kind that, with hindsight, they should have made. |
| Coupled with the scarring of lives, the affair risks a loss of public trust in that cherished institution, the BBC. So loved that we know it as Auntie, it now faces questions over the future of its new director general, George Entwistle, and the chair of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten. The issue has spread to the New York Times and the role of Mark Thompson, appointed as the paper's chief executive just last month, who was the BBC's director general at the time of the issue of whether Newsnight should or should not have televised its investigation into Savile. | Coupled with the scarring of lives, the affair risks a loss of public trust in that cherished institution, the BBC. So loved that we know it as Auntie, it now faces questions over the future of its new director general, George Entwistle, and the chair of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten. The issue has spread to the New York Times and the role of Mark Thompson, appointed as the paper's chief executive just last month, who was the BBC's director general at the time of the issue of whether Newsnight should or should not have televised its investigation into Savile. |
| The Culture Secretary, Maria Miller, has raised "real concerns" about the loss of "public trust and confidence in the BBC" and this leads to the wider point. The Corporation is not the first public institution in current and recent times to lose the confidence of the public that it is there to serve. | The Culture Secretary, Maria Miller, has raised "real concerns" about the loss of "public trust and confidence in the BBC" and this leads to the wider point. The Corporation is not the first public institution in current and recent times to lose the confidence of the public that it is there to serve. |
| The debate over Hillsborough in the House of Commons on Monday reminded many of the difficult questions being asked of senior serving police officers, leading to the resignation this week of Sir Norman Bettison as chief constable of West Yorkshire. The Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, found himself apologising in the same debate for the errors identified in the Hillsborough report in the way that another cherished institution, the National Health Service, responded to the disaster. | The debate over Hillsborough in the House of Commons on Monday reminded many of the difficult questions being asked of senior serving police officers, leading to the resignation this week of Sir Norman Bettison as chief constable of West Yorkshire. The Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, found himself apologising in the same debate for the errors identified in the Hillsborough report in the way that another cherished institution, the National Health Service, responded to the disaster. |
| Add to that the sapping of confidence in the banking system following a meltdown which had its roots in the 1980s culture of making a fast buck; an MPs' expenses scandal which developed over many years as politicians of all parties were encouraged to increase their expenses so that their wages could be kept down to avoid public opprobrium; and the loss of a substantial amount of public trust and confidence in the press, as the Leveson Inquiry has unearthed all sorts of skeletons in closets. Is the sum of these a perfect storm? | Add to that the sapping of confidence in the banking system following a meltdown which had its roots in the 1980s culture of making a fast buck; an MPs' expenses scandal which developed over many years as politicians of all parties were encouraged to increase their expenses so that their wages could be kept down to avoid public opprobrium; and the loss of a substantial amount of public trust and confidence in the press, as the Leveson Inquiry has unearthed all sorts of skeletons in closets. Is the sum of these a perfect storm? |
| Our politicians, elected to govern; our media, called upon to tell truth to power; our police, in place uphold the law; and our banks, in which many had trusted to protect their savings, have one by one found themselves undermined by events many years in the making. | Our politicians, elected to govern; our media, called upon to tell truth to power; our police, in place uphold the law; and our banks, in which many had trusted to protect their savings, have one by one found themselves undermined by events many years in the making. |
| As a child born in the mid-1980s I have no recollection of much of those origins; but what does seem increasingly clear is that there was a culture, something within a number of our public services, that seemed to accept police colluding to denigrate fans crushed to death at a football match; to ignore the likely consequences of celebrities using their sex appeal with children; and to think that getting stinking rich by risking everything was OK. | As a child born in the mid-1980s I have no recollection of much of those origins; but what does seem increasingly clear is that there was a culture, something within a number of our public services, that seemed to accept police colluding to denigrate fans crushed to death at a football match; to ignore the likely consequences of celebrities using their sex appeal with children; and to think that getting stinking rich by risking everything was OK. |
| Once we truly get to the heart of both Hillsborough and Savile, and justice in those individual cases is done, a much bigger argument therefore awaits us. What was it with society then? How could so many of our public and financial institutions have failed in the way that they did? And most importantly, have we changed sufficiently to make it impossible for such events to occur again? | Once we truly get to the heart of both Hillsborough and Savile, and justice in those individual cases is done, a much bigger argument therefore awaits us. What was it with society then? How could so many of our public and financial institutions have failed in the way that they did? And most importantly, have we changed sufficiently to make it impossible for such events to occur again? |
| As a nation and as a society we must learn the lessons so that those fundamental pillars of democracy – Parliament, the press, the police and financial institutions - can once again be held in the esteem that should be theirs. | As a nation and as a society we must learn the lessons so that those fundamental pillars of democracy – Parliament, the press, the police and financial institutions - can once again be held in the esteem that should be theirs. |
| Ed Jacobs is a political consultant at the Leeds based Public Affairs Company and devolution correspondent for the centre-left political and policy blog, Left Foot Forward. | Ed Jacobs is a political consultant at the Leeds based Public Affairs Company and devolution correspondent for the centre-left political and policy blog, Left Foot Forward. |
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