Trust, respect, fairness and confidence are at the heart of society. Quality of life, work, trade, unity, justice, government, nations and, ultimately, world peace depends on it.

The people we choose to look after our affairs are using their positions to syphon off for themselves huge amounts, by any standards but their own, of money we pay in taxes to provide ordinary life services for our citizens. If you had somebody shopping for you and they were found to be helping themselves from your purse at every opportunity, would you trust them, have confidence in them and rely on them to get you fairly dealt with? Even when they are found out, they attempt to stifle all attempts to open up their financial dealings with the public purse to our scrutiny. Even the extreme examples of the Speaker and Derek Conway paying for the high life of sons at Oxford. New kitchens, taxis and salaries for the wife who answered the phone. TVs, second and third houses and all the scams in between are defended in unity.

Worse still, we now hear of Lords of the realm willing to take money to alter or encourage law which would benefit those who pay. It must be common knowledge in the corridors of power that these services are available.

A flashing announcement on my blog this morning warns, 3,000 secret investigators are using secret cameras and vigilance to catch benefit frauds. “We will use every means at our disposal to catch them,” it reads. A number is given on which to report anybody you suspect, and you can also report on line. They will have cars, computers, mobiles, expenses, sick pay and gold plated pensions.

They will also have targets and bonuses so they will be looking for the easiest prospects to get results. Old age pensioners with small nest eggs getting interest and rates benefits. Now that their interest has dropped to a trickle, through no fault of their own, they will not have their benefits increased accordingly, for sure, unless they are on the ball. Single mothers struggling to bring up tots with housing benefits are another good trawl for the snoopers and their bosses.

There are billions of pounds earmarked for benefits, to the most vulnerable among us, sitting in the treasury unclaimed. Clearly it is not them who are guilty. What are they going to do, that works, for them ?

They are obviously looking in the wrong places. They should concentrate on the big fish with the power to get away with it in a big way. Bankers, lawyers and the houses of Parliament would provide very fertile ground to start with, but they have, and are, the best advocates in the land and can defend themselves and inflict hurt when disturbed.

No wonder the large majority of ordinary, law abiding, honest, hard working people have lost all trust and confidence in the system, and the people it throws up for us to choose from. They emerge from the powerful, political parties, religions, and the establishment, all of which are minorities with little or no personal experience or genuine respect for the common decencies, ethics and qualities which bind real communities together. Those who have are soon tainted by the new standards and a reluctance to bite the hand that feeds them. They are betraying our standards by example.