Martha Gill

Nuclear power is the future Britain rejected. Now it’s ti... Energy projects in the UK are among the world's most expensive as we insist on reinventing the wheel

observer.co.uk/news/opinion... The anti-science obsession of British politics has done UK great harm, Good new Observer taking this seriously by @marthagill.bsky.social

How can we change the culture of cover-ups? First, accept... From grooming gangs to the NHS, scandals show us that whistleblowers are the exception – and dysfunction and complicity are rife

My piece observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

This means our current approach - inquiries to root out offenders and bad practice - don't take the source of the problem

To prevent cover-ups, we would need to totally transform the workplace

Yes. Huge incentives, notably keeping your own job, in staying quiet about this stuff. Great examples in ents where various alarming individuals keep working for years after it’s known they are dangerous because the dynamic is if you speak up you will be the one who loses your job

Why do people choose to cover up scandals?

My theory is that it's not 'bad apples', or 'dysfunctional institutions', as we like to pretend

Every modern workplace contains the incentives for coverups

Exactly right. Any substantial organisation will be likely to circle the wagons and cover up failings.

Within it there will be some people who should know better but don't recognise their own complicity. And others who do but will lose their livelihood if they speak up.

How can we change the culture of cover-ups? First, accept... From grooming gangs to the NHS, scandals show us that whistleblowers are the exception – and dysfunction and complicity are rife

observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

We virtue signal when a cover-up comes to light with expressions of shock and disgust - "how on earth could that happen?"

We fool ourselves that rooting out bad apples and installing new rules will help

The truth is these things rarely makes a difference...

1. Professionals want to be team players, fit in, trust others, be loyal and please those in authority

2. Responsibility is diffused, which makes it easy for people to rationalise away their part in the process

3. Habit eventually makes the harm seem normal

We convince ourselves that institutional cover-ups are rare: the result of uniquely terrible people or uniquely dysfunctional systems

The ugly truth: cover-ups are the RULE

They are the result of normal human dynamics that come with every workplace

Maternity scandals, grooming gangs, the infected blood scandal, the Hillsborough disaster, the post office scandal, Grenfell, Windrush, sexual abuse by priests...... wherever we find serious harm we almost always find large numbers of people choosing to conceal it

I call it "the cover-up rule"

Thank you!

This is very good - it skewers the way institutions' leaders will convince themselves that bad behaviour can't happen because rules.

But we need to think more about how things actually work. We - especially senior managers - need to think much more in terms of who has power, and who really doesn't.

How can we change the culture of cover-ups? First, accept... From grooming gangs to the NHS, scandals show us that whistleblowers are the exception – and dysfunction and complicity are rife

observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Cover-ups are not the exception, they are the rule.

What if the incentives pushing people towards complicity are features of MOST work places?

My piece for @observeruk.bsky.social

We have enormous capacity to be shocked by cover-ups.

Each time, we conclude they must be the result of uniquely malign characters or uniquely dysfunctional systems - and commission inquiries to rootle these out

Yet they happen again and again

I've written about institutional cover-ups in this week's
@ObserverUK
.

From grooming gangs to the post office scandal, wherever we find serious harm we almost always find very large numbers of people choosing to conceal it

Why? I think we've been getting it wrong

Enjoyed doing @lbc.co.uk cross questions just now with @simonmarksfsn.bsky.social - great fun

Far from being on their uppers, Britain’s upper classes s... Despite vastly increased competition from other social groups, the aristocracy remains as influential in this century as it ever was

observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

When activists rail against undeserving elites, this is surely a group that should come under attack

But somehow, it doesn't. Why?

My theory in this week's Observer

A: Aristocrats

This despite the fact that:
- They still own a third of the land in England + Wales
- In the last 30 years the actually got richer: their average wealth is now + £16 million
- They are as influential (by some measures) as they were in 1858

Among all the groups of elites that have attracted political fury over the last decade - one percenters, Etonians, metropolitan dinner partygoers, bankers - one category has always managed to slip under the radar.

Q: Which group is this?

Prospective parents are no longer queuing up to adopt children in care | The Observer For every young person who finds a new home, 28 are left desperately hoping for parents – and the cost of living crisis is often to blame

When it comes to adoption, demand usually outstrips supply.

But right now the number of kids in care is rising and the number waiting to adopt them is falling

Why? observer.co.uk/news/columni...

From the piece

Jane Austen’s plates or the woods near her home? I know which I’d rather save | Martha Gill Why this hierarchy of heritage? Our obsession with buildings and artefacts is blinding us to the value of nature

Here's a piece I wrote about what I call our 'hierarchy of heritage' www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

We have fierce protections over buildings and artefacts (such as broken bits of pottery found 'near' Jane Austen's home)

Why the lack of equivalence?

Did you know the only listed tree in Britain is a dead one? (The stump of the Elfin Oak in Kensington Gardens - because it was decorated by a children's illustrator)

While we are talking about the Sycamore Gap, we should ask why culturally important trees and landscapes aren't better protected

Tested to destruction: how an obsession with exams is failing our children | The Observer How do we reform a system that works for some but writes off so many others? Investing in early childhood would be a good start

Piece here observer.co.uk/news/columni...

The real solution might be to take action a decade or so earlier. We spend far less than the OECD average on early years - by the time we are tinkering with GCSEs, its way too late

There's been lots of discussion about getting rid of GCSEs or making them easier - but there would be trade-offs

In fact it would be bad for social mobility in another way - bright kids from tough backgrounds would find it harder to make it to the top