The Times - UK (2022-05-02)

the times | Monday May 2 2022 27

Leading articles

parliament four MPs have been suspended for a

day and seven forced to apologise to the Com-

mons for breaches of the code of conduct.

Faced with this roll-call of shame, attention has

inevitably focused on the culture of parliament.

Despite the increase in the number of female MPs

and women working in parliament, there is little

doubt that attitudes among some male MPs

remain stuck in the last century. There is also no

question that a hard-drinking culture, which has

largely disappeared from nearly every other pro-

fession but which persists in Westminster, contrib-

utes to a dysfunctional working environment. The

combination of excessive alcohol consumption,

long hours often far from home, and complicated

power dynamics leads to boundaries becoming

blurred and many women becoming victims of

unwanted sexual attention.

Attention too has focused on the adequacy, or

rather inadequacy, of parliament’s procedures

when those boundaries are crossed. In 2018, in

response to a series of sexual scandals that

emerged following the MeToo movement, the

Commons created the Independent Complaints

and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) to investigate alle-

gations of misconduct. That was a significant im-

provement on the previous situation in which the

only person to whom anyone believing them-

selves to be a victim of bullying or sexual miscon-

duct by an MP could complain was the MP who

employed them, who too often was the very per-

son they were complaining about.

Nonetheless, the ICGS process is clearly too

cumbersome and slow. Whether the answer is to

increase its resources to expand its investigatory

capacity or whether those working in parliament

would be better protected by being directly em-

ployed by parliament rather than MPs, giving

them access to a human resources department, is

a matter for MPs to decide. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the

Speaker, has proposed a Speaker’s conference to

discuss how best to reform the system.

Yet the key to improving the culture of the Com-

mons lies not in disciplinary processes but in the

willingness of MPs to uphold standards. Too many

recent Westminster scandals stem from a sense of

entitlement, that the powerful are exempt from

the rules that apply to everyone else. This is the

thread that runs from the Owen Paterson affair to

Downing Street parties to sexual misconduct. It is

corrosive both to trust in parliament and ultimate-

ly to democracy itself. To maintain respect, parlia-

ment cannot just represent the country as it is but

must represent it as it wishes to be.

for which they are paid. Indeed, they owe it to the

people who pay their wages, which is ultimately

the students themselves through fees which will

see most leaving university with up to £50,000 of

debt on average.

Students had a rotten deal during the pandemic,

having to endure two disrupted years during

which they received little in-person teaching

while still being liable for their full fees. What’s

more, thanks to changes in the way the student

loan scheme operates, new students starting from

2023 will be forced to start repaying their debts at

lower levels of income. The recent spring state-

ment revealed the scale of the stealth tax rise

imposed on students. The income tax cut of 1p in

the pound from 2024 that Rishi Sunak, the chan-

cellor, announced in March is effectively to be

funded by an expected £5 billion in increased

receipts from student loan repayments.

Under the circumstances, the very least the gov-

ernment can do is to oblige universities to be clear

how much in-person tuition students can expect

for each course. The Office for Students (OfS) has

an important role in undertaking inspections to

ensure that universities are delivering on their

commitments. It was set up to ensure that students

receive value for money. The government’s guide-

lines for the OfS rightly require that it uses its reg-

ulatory powers to ensure that online teaching is

only deployed to complement and enhance the

learning experience and not to detract from it.

That is not to deny that there are ways in which

online learning may be valuable to students. The

pandemic was a time of considerable digital inno-

vation in all sectors, universities included, and

where these innovations have proved helpful and

popular with students they should of course be

continued. But it is also the case that face-to-face

contact is a vital part of the university experience

and provides a spur to learning and creativity that

cannot be replicated online. Just as most business-

es and the civil service are rediscovering the im-

portance of time in the office, so too should lectur-

ers return to offering in-person teaching to those

students who want it. The government says that

institutions that fail to deliver could be fined or

even lose access to student loan-based funding.

Let’s hope that doesn’t prove necessary.

in lapwings in the same period and a 94 per cent

drop-off in turtle doves since the 1990s.

That makes it all the more welcome to be able to

celebrate a conservation success. The Dartford

warbler, whose population in Britain had dwin-

dled to just a handful of pairs in the 1960s, has

bounced back from the brink of extinction. By last

year this small, dark brown bird, with a long tail, a

distinctive red eye-ring and a cherry-red breast,

had recovered enough to be transferred to the am-

ber list. This success is in large part due to deter-

mined efforts by the RSPB to create and restore

heathlands, the bird’s habitat. We report today

that 183 Dartford warbler pairs were spotted in

RSPB reserves in 2021, an increase of 20 per cent

on the 152 pairs spotted in 2019 and up 245 per cent

up on the 53 pairs recorded in 2011.

The success in reviving the Dartford warbler

population should spur efforts to protect other

species endangered by the destruction of nesting

sites and habitats. A similar effort by the RSPB to

revive the population of bitterns, a member of the

heron family, by creating new reedbeds has also

yielded positive results. To extend this success for

all 70 birds on the red list will require a national

effort in which everyone can play their part.

Chamber of Horrors

A tougher disciplinary process might improve Westminster culture. But the real

problem lies in a sense of entitlement among MPs unwilling to uphold standards

At a time of war in Europe, ahead of local elections

and in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, it is

dispiriting that the political agenda is once again

overshadowed by scandals over the misconduct of

MPs. A week that began with a debate about miso-

gyny in parliament, prompted by a newspaper

article about the deputy leader of the Labour party

crossing her legs, ended with a Conservative MP

resigning after admitting having watched porn-

ography in the Commons chamber. Meanwhile a

number of MPs are under investigation for

misconduct, following allegations ranging from

harassment to more serious wrongdoing, though

the parliamentary watchdog has played down

reports that the number could be as high as 56.

Parliament, as is to be expected of an institution

that is representative of the country, has always

had its share of misfits, rascals and rogues. Yet the

evidence suggests there is something particularly

rotten about the present cohort of parliament-

arians. Neil Parish, the pornography-watching

MP, resigned two days after his erstwhile col-

league, Imran Khan, finally submitted his resigna-

tion having been convicted of sexual assault. Two

more Tory MPs are without the whip at present,

following allegations of sexual misconduct. Mean-

while two MPs are awaiting trial. So far in this

University Challenge

There is no excuse for students to continue to be taught remotely

It beggars belief that four months after the govern-

ment dropped its official work-from-home gui-

dance and three months after all remaining

coronavirus pandemic restrictions were lifted in

England, there are still some university lecturers

refusing to teach students face to face. While most

universities have returned to in-person lectures

and tuition, there are still individual courses at

different institutions which are using online and

“blended” teaching methods, where lectures are

delivered remotely while only tutorials are face to

face. The government is quite right to threaten

these universities with a loss of funding if they do

not return to full in-person teaching next term.

There can be no reasonable excuse for any uni-

versity to persist with remote tuition. After all,

school teachers have long been back in the class-

room full time. There is no reason why university

lecturers should not be too. No doubt they are

enjoying the restoration of freedoms as much as

the rest of us, going to restaurants, the theatre and

sports events and taking holidays. If they can ven-

ture outside the home in their personal life, they

can venture back into the lecture hall to do the job

Taking Wing

The revival of the Dartford warbler should spur further conservation efforts

It is rare these days to encounter good news about

Britain’s birdlife. The latest red list from the Royal

Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB),

published last year, identified 70 species in urgent

need of help, twice as many as in 1996. It now

includes sparrows and starlings, which have seen

huge population declines, as well as summer visi-

tors such as swifts, house martins, cuckoos and

nightingales. A new book about Britain’s declining

bird populations, In Search of One Last Song by

Patrick Galbraith, reviewed in this paper on Satur-

day, laments the disappearance of 90 per cent of

grey partridges since the 1960s, an 80 per cent fall

UK: Early May bank holiday; Dying Matters
Awareness week begins.
US: Met Gala fashion event, New York.
World: Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan.

Each year, as
stinging nettles
begin to shoot up,
their harmless
distant cousins the
dead-nettles burst
into bee-delighting
flower. White dead-nettle can be confused
with Urtica dioica (the stinging nettle) when
it isn’t in bloom; its leaves look similar and
are about the same size. Red dead-nettles
are much smaller, with rounded, less
serrated leaves; spotted dead-nettles have
variegated leaves, while black horehound
smells of rot. Shade-loving yellow archangel
is also from the dead-nettle family, and
looks spectacular in woods, where it
sometimes forms carpets with bluebells.
melissa harrison

In 1994 President FW de Klerk conceded
defeat against Nelson Mandela in the South
African election.

Sir James Dyson, OM,
pictured, inventor, the
first bagless vacuum
cleaner, and founder,
Dyson, 75; Lily Allen,
singer-songwriter, No
Shame (2018), 37;
Édouard Balladur, prime
minister of France (1993-95), 93; Christine
Baranski, actress, Mamma Mia! (2008), 70;
David Beckham, footballer, England (1996-
2009) and co-owner of Inter Miami and
Salford City, 47; Juliet Bouverie, chief
executive, Stroke Association, 54; Princess
Charlotte of Cambridge, 7; Stephen Daldry,
stage and film director, Billy Elliot (2000), 61;
Tom Dean, swimmer, two-time Olympic
gold medallist (2020), 22; Prof Simon
Gaskell, chairman, Quality Assurance
Agency for Higher Education, president and
principal, Queen Mary, University of
London (2009-17), 72; Lou Gramm, singer-
songwriter, Foreigner, I Want to Know What
Love Is (1984), 72; Michael Grandage,
president of the Royal Central School of
Speech and Drama, artistic director, Donmar
Warehouse (2002-12), 60; Julia Hartley-
Brewer, broadcaster, talkRADIO, 54; Pamela
Healy, chief executive, British Liver Trust,
63; Engelbert Humperdinck, singer, Release
Me (1967), The Last Waltz (1967), 86; Bianca
Jagger, human rights activist, 77; Dwayne
Johnson, wrestler and actor, The Fast and
the Furious film series, 50; Reyahn King,
chief executive, York Museums Trust, 57;
Brian Lara, cricketer, West Indies (1990-
2006), 53; Matt Murray, journalist, editor-in-
chief, The Wall Street Journal, 56; Martin
Naughton, entrepreneur, founder of
GlenDimplex, 83; Carole Souter, master, St
Cross College, Oxford, chief executive,
Heritage Lottery Fund (2003-16), 65; Sir
David Suchet, actor best known for his
portrayal of Hercule Poirot (1989-2013), 76;
Baroness (Liz) Sugg, overseas territories and
sustainable development minister (2019-20),
45; Alan Titchmarsh, horticulturist and
broadcaster, 73; Stephen Venables,
mountaineer, 68; Donatella Versace, fashion
designer, 67; Jimmy White, snooker player,
60; Lord (Harry) Woolf, lord chief justice of
England and Wales (2000-05), 89.

“Loss either teaches you to persist in the face
of suffering, or hardens you into a bitter cynic.
Sometimes, it does a little of both.” Grace Slick,
singer-songwriter, Somebody to Love? (1998)

Nature notes

Birthdays today

On this day

The last word

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