When a public scandal occurs in Britain, it is carefully investigated. However, it requires a persistent and long citizen’s campaign, writes Kirsi Crowley.
Kirsi Crowley Britannian correspondent
LONDON Sometimes the British leadership humbles itself in front of the people. That’s what happened this week. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak apologized to the tens of thousands of people who contracted HIV and hepatitis in public health care.
– A day of shame for the state, described Sunak in parliament, when the report of the six-year investigation concluded that the state and public health care betrayed the people and hid information.
In the 1970s and 1980s, patients suffering from bleeding disorders and receiving blood transfusions after childbirth or surgery were unknowingly exposed to contaminated blood with fatal consequences. More than 3,000 of them died, including hundreds of young children. There are still around four victims a week.
Prime Minister Sunak promised that every victim would receive proper compensation, whatever they paid. Those infected with HIV and hepatitis are promised up to three million euros in compensation for their suffering.
But the investigation mill does not stop. Currently, there are numerous public examinations in Britain. Today, another commission began questioning the former director of the post office, who is considered guilty of wrongly sentencing the post office operators. Prime Minister Sunak has had time to describe this scandal as the biggest tangle of wrongful convictions in the country’s history. Former head of the Posti Paula Vennells began his testimony by apologizing.
Starting in the 1990s, post office operators were accused of embezzlement, when the reason for the money disappearing from the register was a faulty computer program. Hundreds of innocent people had to pay tens of thousands of euros out of their own pockets. Some went to prison. Some committed suicide.
In turn, in the ever-advancing corona investigation, society’s actors have been widely consulted, from citizens who have lost loved ones to health authorities and the country’s leaders.
The investigation has read the colorful Whatsapp messages of the ministers and their assistants, in which they frankly criticized the then prime minister Boris Johnson and colleagues that they had no idea how to act in a sudden crisis. At the hearing, Johnson himself apologized for the deaths related to the corona pandemic and said he had made mistakes. This was also shown live to citizens on television and YouTube.
The public inquiry is established by the government, but it is always led by an independent chairman appointed by the board, who is generally considered trustworthy. A judge is often chosen as the chairman.
The purpose of the examinations must be respected: we want to hear what happened, who is to blame and how a similar situation can be prevented. The purpose is to find an agreement and common understanding on an issue that excites and divides the nation. Decision-makers and participants are marched before the commission as if on a pole of shame. The certificates and analysis are recorded in a report of thousands of pages.
However, examinations are expensive and they drag on for years.
An investigation is currently underway, among other things, into whether the authorities could have prevented the 1998 bombing in Omagh, Northern Ireland. An investigation is also underway into the Grenfell Tower fire in London, where 72 people died seven years ago, and whether Britain covered up illegal killings by its troops in Afghanistan.
It is not easy to start an investigation. The victims of the postal scandal have been campaigning since the 1990s. The commission of inquiry was established only three years ago.
Big scandals can sometimes simmer in the public eye for a long time without much attention. The torture of post office keepers had been written about in the media for years. A big uproar arose only when a dramatized TV series was produced about the injustices.
The investigation is at best a purifying experience for those seeking justice. But investigations do not lead to punishment or charges. Often the original culprits are retired or in the grave.
The victims of the blood scandal have been seeking justice for about 50 years. Their victory is already looming. However, for thousands of them it will be too late.
This is what the blood scandal is all about: