The stench coming from this government? It’s the corrupt mixture of private wealth and public squalor

‘The official line on Zahawi is what we might call the Sue Gray formulation: that we need to wait for the inquiry.’ A protester in Westminster, London, on Wednesday. Photograph: Vuk Valcic/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

He might have gone by the time you read this. He certainly should have. But we are in the age of shamelessness now, when revelations that would once have driven public figures to hide in mortified penance now prompt not so much as an apology, let alone a resignation.

I’m speaking of the Conservative party chairman, Nadhim Zahawi, but not only him. For the proliferating questions about Zahawi’s finances, like those surrounding the appointment of the BBC chairman, Richard Sharp, point to a phenomenon that is both wider and deeper.