Shrewsbury, Partygate, Covid loans: Where is the accountability in public life?

Positions of power are positions of responsibility. People in them should be in service to the public, but too often they are only in service to their egos, writes Salma Shah

Corruption comes in many guises when you live in a democratic society (EPA)

The maternity scandal at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust is the epitome of dishonest conduct by those in power. It is the worst maternity scandal in NHS history, with the initial 23 cases investigated ballooning to 1,500 as heartbroken families came forward for answers about the standard of care that led to the deaths of their children.

The failings are atrocious enough; children snatched away before they got their chance at life brings about the type of gutwrenching sadness that can’t be easily shaken off. But in many ways worse than this, was the culture of covering up and blaming grieving mothers instead of taking responsibility for those in the hospital’s care seriously.

Corruption comes in many guises when you live in a democratic society. We don’t have the obviousness of dictators in gold-plated palaces and the extreme nepotism that concentrates power by who, not what, you know. But the small, insidious ways in which the general populace can be mugged off are apparent all around us. The Shrewsbury maternity scandal is just one such example.