What Accountability Could Look Like

(If We Actually Meant It)

Receipts, Please

No more vague press releases. Real accountability starts with documentation:

• Who ordered what?
• Who knew what, and when?
• Who signed off on the airstrikes, the gag orders, the budget cuts to science?

If you can’t show your receipts, you don’t get to keep your seat.

“I didn’t know” is not a defence when you’re in charge of a country, a military, or a university.

• If your policies cause harm, you own the harm.
• If your silence enables abuse, you own the silence.

Accountability means no more shrugging while Rome burns.

We don’t need another “independent inquiry” that takes five years and concludes with “lessons must be learned.”
We need:

• Public hearings.
• Reparations.
• Consequences.

And yes, if someone lied under oath or buried evidence, they don’t get a pension and a podcast deal.

If you spread false news about elections, vaccines, or war, you don’t get a primetime slot and a book tour.

• You get flagged.
• You get fact-checked.
• You get a long, awkward silence while the truth catches up.

Accountability means we stop rewarding the loudest liars.

Whether it’s a president, a prime minister, or a vice chancellor with a £1.2 million office renovation, no one is above scrutiny.

• Power doesn’t exempt you.
• Popularity doesn’t protect you.
• And “national interest” isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card.

If you break the rules, you face the music. Even if you composed it.

Let the people most affected lead the reckoning.

• Survivors of violence shape justice.
• Students shape education reform.
• Workers shape workplace repair.

Accountability isn’t top-down. It’s bottom-up, sideways, and spiral-shaped.

Healing doesn’t happen by skipping the hard part.

• You don’t get to “move forward” until you’ve named what happened, who it hurt, and how you’ll prevent it next time.
• Closure isn’t a press conference. It’s a process.

It’s a structure. It’s receipts, consequences, and repair. It’s the refusal to let power rewrite the story. And yes, it’s cheeky, because it has to be. When the system gaslights you, humour becomes resistance.

If accountability were real, we wouldn’t need to shout. But until then, we spiral louder. Because truth deserves more than footnotes. It deserves a reckoning with teeth, timing, and a touch of sass.

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