A whistleblower is the negative term for someone who sneaks on their friends or colleagues, but the infected blood inquiry and the post office scandal highlight just how important it could have been if people had spoken out with what they knew! 2,000 years ago, in a letter from James, he wrote that anyone who knows clearly what is the right thing to do and doesn’t do it is at fault. This is nothing new for our times!

Happily, many people do respond positively when the need is obvious, as evidenced by bystanders rushing to help people in trouble, and even challenging attackers on the rampage. This was shown in CCTV pictures of a fellow using a chair to hold off a man with a sword. It seems to be in our nature to help people when they are down.

Large organisations seem to suffer the opposite, maybe because people lower down are seeking the next rung up the ladder. This creates a culture of putting the image of the organisation ahead of the right thing to do. There is no moral high ground, because some churches and politicians, to whom we might look for leadership, have also fallen into the trap of making the image of the organisation more important than the message. It is not the job of a columnist to remind readers of news stories!

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, maybe it is a duck! If someone is doing something wrong, and is likely to continue, what should we do? Sometimes a gentle word from a friend does the trick, such as 'leave your knife at home'. On other occasions a quiet word to a supervisor, or directly to a colleague when they are seen pilfering, is more appropriate than a full blast on a whistle.

Where to draw the line? If someone parks on a double yellow line, should a bystander take the job away from the paid council parking attendant - or worse, deprive the council of the parking fine? Years ago, during the Falklands crisis, the British Ambassador to the UN was asked about plans, and replied "Argentina is employing lots of spies to gather that information, it would be wrong of me to deprive them of their jobs".

For 40 years the NHS, politicians and civil servants kept hidden the risk to patients of possible contamination of imported blood supplies. They knew the risks, as did the US blood suppliers. They all knew, but kept the problem secret to protect profits and above all to protect the image of the NHS and the Ministry of Health. There were Labour, Tory and Lib-Dem ministers at different times. All prevented prompt remedies to help those infected, or even cure them.

The Post Office scandal repeats the story, senior people protecting each other at the expense of truth and integrity. Think how many people must have known or suspected things were not right and kept quiet? How many were maybe threatened with dismissal if they allowed the truth to surface? Both these scandals and many similar situations have badly needed whistles to be blown loudly!

When we can see clearly what is the right thing to do in a serious situation that affects other people we should call it out, and we share the blame if we keep quiet or take no action!