accountability gaps

4 articles

Dec 19, 2025 • via The Spectator

Lobby Briefings Shrink to Sporadic Stage-Managed Events

Starmer scraps daily scrutiny for influencer-friendly press conferences

Downing Street overhauls lobby system, cutting briefings and inviting content creators amid fury from journalists. The cross-party pattern erodes transparency as governments dodge accountability when polls plummet.

Dec 19, 2025 • via Forces News

MOD Withholds Breakdown of £9bn Military Housing Pledge

43,000 homes targeted, but no costs assigned to fixes, agency, or builds

Defence ministry pledges £9bn for service family homes yet refuses spending details, repeating cross-party patterns of vague announcements amid persistent squalor and recruitment woes. Families see botched repairs, not transformation.

Dec 19, 2025 • via The Standard

Ten Weaknesses Enable Six-Year Fraud at Tower Hamlets

Auditors flag procurement gaps despite dismissal and police probe

Tower Hamlets council dismisses a fraud suspect from 2018 schemes, but EY auditors decry probe shortfalls and list ten control failures in procurement. Taxpayer losses mount amid deflections to 'legacy' issues.

Nov 18, 2025 • via The Guardian

Billions of Plastic Beads Lurk in England's Coastal Sewage Tanks

Fifteen outdated plants risk spills like Camber Sands' 650 million-bead disaster

At least 15 south coast sewage facilities use risky bio-beads with no regulatory oversight, exposing chronic infrastructure neglect and privatization failures that threaten marine life and deprived communities. Spills persist across decades, unaddressed by water companies prioritizing profits.