Thread by @jonlis1

At some point we’ll have to confront the culture of ‘open secrets’ that everyone seems to know about and nobody ever publishes.

There’s been a recent explosion in stories about public figures that were brushed under the carpet for years. #MeToo was an obvious one. But it’s the tip of the iceberg.

Part of it is Britain’s ferocious libel laws. Part of it is the establishment’s existential drive to preserve its own power. But it is utterly corrosive.

Everyone in political or media circles has heard stories about major public figures involved in sex and drug scandals, among other serious misdemeanours. They are the currency of any social event. Omertà and the fear of litigation stops the chatter going anywhere else.

I’m not even a reporter and I’ve heard credible stories that would bring down major public figures in an instant. But I don’t have proof and I can’t do anything about it. And yet some people - lots of people, actually - do have proof.

Hundreds of people necessarily had proof of these lockdown parties for 18 months and sat on them, for one reason only: it was in their interests to do so. Others have proof of scandals we’ll never even know about.

But in the age of supposed transparency and accountability, ‘one rule for all’, that no longer feels sustainable. It may be in individuals’ personal interest not to blow the whistle on our leaders, but it’s emphatically not in the interest of the public.

The problem goes far beyond the entrenchment of an in and out crowd, where everyone in Westminster knows the scandals and the ‘little people’ never find out about them. It goes to the heart of how we are governed.

If we don’t do anything to change this culture, it will fester and metastasise, breeding the contempt of the people in power and the mistrust of the people they govern - and these scandals will never bloody end.