Past cases show a clear thread: direct personal gain. From a council leader enriching himself via a bypass route to a prison governor’s ‘fundamental betrayal of public trust’, courts have focused on monetised abuse.
By contrast, there is as yet no evidence Lord Mandelson received any ‘direct benefit’.
Locke’s warning is stark: when criminal justice bends to ‘the braying mob’, outcomes may be popular—but ‘also wrong’.




