Government and Integrity

or should one say Integrity in Government. My dander is up. (Did Frankie Howerd say this before?)

Today we read and hear the weasel words of Baroness Scotland (nothing personal) excusing herself for non compliance with a rather demanding, some say Draconian, law which she, apparently, pushed through and which, apparently, effectively states that there is no excuse.

The law requires a prospective employer to see, check and copy specified documents for a prospective employee to ensure that they are not illegal immigrants, and holds the prospective employer responsible.

On the same day we hear not only the lack of fair, or even decent, treatment of genuine rape victims by both the Police and CPS, but also the story of a restaurant proprietor who was fined £70,000 despite having both seen and copied at least the same documentation as Baroness Scotland, namely national insurance, tax records and former employment records and, in his case, possibly passports as well. It strikes me that Joe Public might not fully understand the purport of all visa stamps in passports. I imagine that this restauranteur is likely to go out of business.

So again we have double standards and, again, it is Joe Public - the little guy with little or no voice in this acclaimed model of democracy who suffer. It is symptomatic that we are constantly bombarded by a constant flow of legislation in which we consistently become the 'victim', we who have so little ability to defend ourselves against the system. It strikes me that society is actually being damaged by this constant flow of legislation creating instant potential criminals (or suspects) of us all.

Just now, on the news, I heard another item on Baroness Scotland which used words to suggest she had done nothing wrong, words which would not be used in reporting about us if we had committed the same offence.

I really do believe that the government should go back to the drawing board and create legislation and regulation which would lead to a responsible, healthy society based on sound value standards; and that Punch and Judy politics should be consigned to the bin. The country is in a state where it needs, and has needed, good governance and not subjugation to a plethora of futuristic IT systems knowing and micro managing every aspect of our lives (without our permission). We also need to have trust and faith in the integrity of our government and institutions, something seriously lacking at the moment.

It is clear that this rant is consequent all of this governments constant and unhealthy assault on our democratic rights *and* responsibilities fundamentally changing our society in a way that we have not sanctioned, whilst perpetuating the abuses by big business, banks, etc......