Letters: Whose rules are they anyway?
[Re: Chief execs in Boris Johnson’s position would fall on their sword for rule-breaking, yesterday]
It’s an intolerable position for Boris Johnson to take that the boss of P&O should go for the graceless sacking of 800 seafarers if he himself continues to sit at the helm in Downing Street even as he faces the threat of a fine from the Met Police over his behaviour in lockdowns.
As Sarah Wallace points out very well in her piece yesterday any company worth its salt would implement serious proceedings against a chief executive officer who failed to follow lockdown rules – and they weren’t even the ones making them.
It is a simple matter of leadership, of whether we can possibly trust a company – or a government – if the person at the top refuses to follow the rules everyone else was following. But it is also for this very reason that companies have strict protocols in place and outline the behaviour expected of their top brass. The government has the ministerial code, but it doesn’t seem to mean much. There needs to be a clear port of call for what to do, it cannot simply be left up to the Prime Minister to decide on his own punishment.
Hattie Freedman