People are at the heart of what happens. The breaking Mohamed Al-Fayed scandal will implicate many people, some kicking themselves for not being more aware at the time, others due for a legal kicking for being complicit.

Highlighting the needy with Anthony Bernard.

The Grenfell report is being analyzed, along with the Post Office scandal and Contaminated Blood inquiry.  Blame can be allocated to organisations or monster bosses, but it is individual people who made decisions that shaped events.  

Some politicians believe that establishing legal policies makes things better; others believe that private enterprise is more responsive than central government.  Both problems and their solutions depend on individuals; responsibility can be shuffled from one contractor to another as easily as from senior to junior within a team.  Correct behaviour requires that everyone, regardless of position, uses their knowledge and ability to see what is right and act upon it. 

Society is nearing a point of breakdown because too many people, even a majority, do whatever will keep their own nose clean or gather some personal advantage.  There is a misplaced joke coming up in November …"Remember Guy Fawkes, the only man who went to Parliament intending to keep his promise".  The joke is wrong on two counts, first historians now realise the Gunpowder Plot was a set-up, and secondly most politicians do intend to keep their promises - the problem is they get distracted or change course once elected!! 

If you see something wrong and fail to do anything about it, you are letting down your friends, whomever you work for, and above all yourself.  Putting on blinkers is not an excuse when experience, training and common sense should make something apparent.   This applies to ignoring suspicion of abusive relationships, allowing a friend to drive after drinking too much, broken sewage pipes or telling lies over inflammable cladding or postal accounting software. 

The stocks were an old sanction, miscreants were held in position for passers by to ridicule and throw things, which would be contrary to laws today.  It is right for people and their possible crimes to be legally tested - heaven knows where trial by gossip could lead in these days of social media!  However, wealth and present laws enable some people to evade scrutiny, while lawyers create complexity and confusion to hide things. 

Organisations allow personal responsibility to be diluted.  The soldier blames the officer for giving orders; the corporate officer blames the policy from above, plus mistakes by people doing the job.  In industry and businesses, these are directors, managers and employees.  In government they are department heads, deputies or whatever, whether in District or County Councils or Parliament.  All the participants are real individuals, each with a part to play in maintaining society for us to live safely and securely without being taken advantage of.   

Our shared humanity requires that each of us plays our part as voters in our democracy, but also take responsibility for whatever we do.  There is a saying "the person who never made a mistake never made anything", and any mistake is most quickly corrected by the person who knows about it and owns up!  Trying to pass the blame by hiding within an organisation or political structure creates a nasty smell, and may cause a worse problem for someone else or even a major disaster. 

Honesty and integrity are not negotiable, not in politics nor in everyday life.