BUNGA vs BORIS
The Gold Standard of political scandals
Political scandals come and go. But some, the really juicy ones, get their own themed restaurants.
After the most extraordinary week in modern British politics, allow me to introduce younger readers to the Gold Standard of political scandals, down to its exotic name: Berlusconi’s Bunga Bunga sex parties.
The host called them ‘elegant dinners’ rather than orgies with very young women dressed as nuns and nurses but, you know, details, details. What Bunga Bunga actually means has been debated at length, but I think we can safely define it as ‘erotic entertainment.’
Berlusconi wasn’t entertained for long. The scandal contributed to him having to step down as Prime Minister and in 2013 he was found guilty of paying for sex with an underage girl, though the conviction was overturned on appeal after his lawyers argued he could not have known her real age. Berlusconi is currently in court again, this time accused of having paid some of the girls to stop them talking about the ‘parties’.
No wonder there are themed restaurants named after the scandal. The one I went to in London’s Battersea years ago didn’t feature any actual orgies (…..), but the pizza was good and the decor a cross between a cheap Italian souvenir shop and a house of ill repute.
Those years weren’t the easiest time to be an Italian abroad. My native country was the subject of both ridicule and international disapproval that corruption, lies and immorality had taken hold to such an extent. Berlusconi’s media empire went into overdrive in defense of its boss. Bunga Bunga became a byword for scandalous political disfunction.
I’d often go on Italian TV to comment on events, and as a UK-based journalist I’d be asked if it could ever happen in the UK. The answer was implicit. Of course not. Britain was a country of strong values and institutions. Were something similar to happen (unthinkable!) it would be dealt with swiftly and professionally. British politics was something to emulate.
Meanwhile in the UK itself, many of my colleagues and friends would often ridicule Italy, and laugh wholeheartedly about the Bunga Bunga parties. They had a point but it was painfully embarassing.
Fast forward a decade, and they’re not laughing quite as hard about the lockdown parties held in Downing Street. It’s obviously not a case of orgies or underage prostitution, but it’s nonetheless a serious breach of trust with the electorate during a pandemic. One rule for them and one for us. That’s not the spirit of British Fair Play.
Unsurprisingly, the past week has seen enormous international interest in the fate of British politics.
Within the EU’s Brussels HQ, some could barely contain their glee. According to Politico.eu “Typical Boris. Full of sh*t” was apparently the response of one unnamed EU diplomat to Johnson’s resignation.
And across other capitals, there was just as much interest. The UK is one of the world’s most influential countries and scandalous details work well written in any language. The word ‘liar’ was mentioned in most major European publications. Much of the coverage was dripping with schadenfreude.
But I still felt a twinge of that sense of ‘it couldn’t happen here’ that I remember from the Bunga-era. Even after 6 years of Brexit mayhem, I still felt disappointment that this political implosion was happening in the UK.
I know this country is far from perfect. I didn’t work at Al Jazeera for 16 years to be blind to the often rampant hypocrisy of the UK (and the wider West) when it comes to values.
But I’ve always felt that the sense of fair play really IS important to the British and that they’re willing to fight for it. The United Kingdom remains one of least corrupt countries in the world and one where broadcast media is regulated to remain impartial (if you think a channel like GB News is beyond the pale, you haven’t seen the offering in some other countries). I’ve also always found the UK to be more tolerant than most other nations I’ve known and lived in.
But as we’ve recently seen, values can be eroded slowly. Closing an eye to sexual misconduct may have been the last straw for Johnson, but the rot had started to set long before.
There’s a lot of talk about ‘populist’ leaders, and a tendency to conflate various characters with questionable hair styles and even more questionable immigration policies all under the banner of populism - a term which is notoriously hard to define. But here’s why I think the UK, despite a difficult few years, remains different to the rest.
Berlusconi quite literally created his own political party. It’s hard to imagine it without him, and no heir apparent has emerged despite Berlusconi’s advancing age. In the US, Trump has captured huge parts of the Republican party. Many sprung to defend his false claims that the 2020 election had been stolen and those within the party who have openly condemned his role in inciting the January 6th storming of Capitol Hill have found themselves ostracised. Both Trump and Berlusconi changed their own political parties and their nations’ politics.
But if Boris Johnson is packing his bags and leaving Downing Street, it’s because of his party. It’s because his ministers resigned and many of his own backbenchers were no longer prepared to close an eye to his lies and mistakes. Sure, they were all making political calculations about the impact on their own careers after arguably having supported Johnson for much too long. There’s little that is truly altruistic in politics. But it was still the Conservatives themselves who called time on their leader.
A new guard doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll see a u-turn from many of the Johnson government’s more controversial policies. But the words we keep hearing from the candidates hoping to succeed him are honesty, integrity and truth. Let’s see what that will actually mean in practice, and if the Boris years were just a phase or a permanent change in British politics.
I’m hoping it’s the former. What do you think?
I can't help believing that we think of politics as once having had a golden age, when there were statesmen and career politicians and everything seemed to be above board. Perhaps though it's the level of scrutiny that politicians are now subject to, and the fact there are so many people able to publish articles and opinions as well as to investigate behaviour and wrongdoing. Maybe the older politicians were "at it" almost as much as the current crop but there's no doubt in my mind that Boris had few qualities that would have marked him out as a leader and he came with a price that many, for too long, were prepared to pay. It's down to the moral compass of the individual at the end of the day and the willingness to see politics as public service, rather than a means to an end or an opportunity simply to enrich oneself and one's friends. They say absolute power corrupts absolutely but I think the likes of Boris and Silvio were already corrupted before they gained office.
Politics level has been going down the hill across the whole world for some time now. Wondering if it's linked with the level of education keep decreasing and then people voting for these questionable people or parties. It is all linked: abortion and guns laws in America, exclusion & homophobic feelings raising around Europe...not sure where we are heading. Certainly the trust is getting thinner and probably a big change with new iconic leaders is required everywhere. Question is...do they exist?