Apathetic electorate accepting corruption

AMIDST the clamour of ‘wallpapergate,’ I was left contemplating the issue of role modelling. It is a familiar cry of many older folk to retort, ‘the kids of today...’ The blanks are often critical and derogatory.

But ask yourself about the quality of their role models. They witness self-serving career politicians, who seem to break the rules whenever it suits; who argue like children when they fall out; who spend fortunes that benefit the few and not the many, for example, HS2. They staff their own watchdogs, give honours to donors and supporters, and grant amnesty to the big guns and bullies, such as bankers, Carrillion, the Post Office, and property developers, who build the bonfires in the sky as cheaply as possible.

They dip their hands into public money as if it were their own and enjoy a lavish lifestyle at our expense. The list goes on... and yet the apathetic electorate appear willing to accept this corruption.

In sport, cheating is regarded as OK, feigning injury, trying to get fellow players sent off or booked. They have celebrities whose vanity and lack of morals would rival Sodom and Gomorrah.

Perhaps we all need to look at the examples we set before we criticise others? If we want this selfish, greedy world for our kids and grandkids, then at the moment many of us are great role models. It’s not just those in the public eye that carry this responsibility, for we allow them to be there.

Peter Lawrence Dursley, Glos