State of decay?

[matgb]

This pretty much sums up the reactions of large swathes of talking head commentators over the last week:



When I look back to what I've read about previous riots in London over the centuries, when I look at corruption scandals or financial collapses, it really does put into perspective how lucky we are and have been.

I mean, seriously, riots across all of London, no one very few killed^[1] and the London murder rate actually goes down?. Total deaths nationally five, including three men run down by a car.

The bankers are finally brought down, not by deliberate deceit, not by active fraud or theft, but by incompetence and optimism.

Parliament is brought into disrepute in a corruption scandal. What over? A few grand on a duck house, a few grand over claimed on a mortgage, etc. Compare that to many other countries today? Compare that to corruption scandals in the past in the UK?

Moral decay? We've never had it so good.

Scary, isn't it?

ETA: Apparently there's been a death in Ealing that I had overlooked, the post is amended to reflect that.

Comments

[almostwitty]

You're forgetting the huge amounts stashed away by the banks and tax evaders like Vodafone, the Arcadia Group etc. - all perfectly legal, but morally dubious, some would say.

And of course, if you're going to send someone to jail for six months for stealing a £3 bottle of water - because of the moral decay - then you should also send someone to jail for stealing £2k from the taxpayer to buy a duck house. If the latter had been deemed illegal. It's not breaking the law, but it's certainly breaking the spirit of the law.

[watervole]

I think I agree. This is a damn good country to live in.
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