Why is the British government in such a mess?

Partygate suggests there is something wrong, if not actually rotten, in the way Britain is governed. It’s time we tried to figure it out and fix it, suggests Mary Dejevsky

Boris Johnson was made for Partygate – and vice versa (Getty/eyevine/The Independent)

Not for the first time, the goings-on behind a familiar black door have been prompting amazement, disgust and ridicule in almost equal measure. Every nation, it might be said, gets not only the government it deserves – but the scandals it deserves, too.

Boris Johnson was made for Partygate – and vice versa – which is why the shenanigans at No 10 have remained in the headlines for so long, not just in the UK but abroad. It is also why they have prompted an inquiry, and why, whatever the findings, they are so damaging – not just to him personally, but to the government, and to the Conservative – er – party.

But could it be too easy to blame this prime minister, whose well-known personal foibles resemble all too closely the illicit fun being had so routinely at No 10? After all, parties were held, it has been admitted, in other departments of government. The head of the civil service, for heaven’s sake, held one in his office, which is why he had to be replaced as the person deputed to conduct the inquiry. In short, how far was this entirely a matter of the wrong tone being set from the top by one prime minister, and how far might it rather reflect a wider and deeper malaise in the system – in the way the UK is governed?