UNITED KINGDOM
Spiked
Tim Black
One weekend. Two so-called sex-abuse scandals. And now two more institutional staples of British life find themselves caught up in foundation-shaking crises.
First it was the Lib Dems: On Friday, Channel 4 News ran a story in which several women with varying Lib Dem affiliations claimed that former party chief executive Lord Rennard had behaved ‘inappropriately’ towards them. At first, Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg denied any prior knowledge of the allegations. But by Sunday evening he was forced to admit that he had been aware of ‘indirect and non-specific concerns’ regarding Rennard’s behaviour since 2008. At the time, then chief of staff Danny Alexander had apparently even reprimanded Rennard over the so-called non-specific concerns. As it stands, the police are set to meet Lib Dem officials, as senior party officials offer a panicked combination of mea culpa and denial.
For the Catholic Church, the second institution finding itself basking in the murk of a sex scandal, the lurid headlines are nothing new. Still, between the Observer’s initial report that Britain’s most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, had been accused of ‘inappropriate’ behaviour with several aspiring priests, and Monday’s revelation that Pope Benedict XVI had effectively ‘asked Cardinal O’Brien to resign’, we saw the church virtually dismantling itself. It is now not only without a pope; it lacks a leader in Britain, too. That is a startling state of affairs.
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