Wednesday 13 May 2009

Corruption

They say a fish rots from its head. Many of the top MPs from the PM down have recently been mired in the expenses scandal which I termed The Great Westminster Robbery. Today one of them is paying back £41000 that he must have stolen from the public purse. This is a major crime which under any other circumsatnce would probably merit a jail sentence.

I read recently that police have been arrested for misusing public funds. They have apparently been suspected of making inflated expenses claims. There has reportedly been widespread used of American Express corporate credit cards which are currently being investigated. I have to say that nothing surprises me about the police. Their role in our society has changed remarkably in the past twelve years or so.

Today there is a report that fraud has now entered our Education system and that the Head of a school in the Brent Council area is suspected of fraud. On and on it goes because the integrity of the country has been damaged almost beyond belief. Public service has become an excuse for self enrichment. The salaries of Public servants has grown out of all proportion but whenever the public need a service then there is never enough money.

There must be honest, politicians, police and public servants somewhere but it is sometimes very difficult to spot them. Justice seems not to exist, the police often appear uncaring and unreasonable and try getting the council to be fair and objective. People in our street recently opposed a family dwelling being converted into a student let. Our case was that we already had 300 students living close to us in halls of residence so that we obviously had more than our share. We were informed that, although the fence of the halls of residence bordered our street, the actual building was in a different catchment area! Sigh!

When I saw David Cameron's anger the other day I saw the same anger that the public has. He appeared to understand that members of his party were acting in a fraudulent manner and he acted quickly. It was a rare show of leadership. If we are to save this country from dropping further into the mire then we need more of this riteous anger. We need inspired leadership from men of integrity. We will not get it from the authors of the New Labour Project or the European Union.

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