IN the league table of virtues, loyalty has slipped some way behind ambition. To be loyal is to be viewed as a rather quaint museum exhibit. You are not congratulated for your dedication, but pitied for failing to "move on". Worse still, you are patronised: "They don't make 'em like that any more...".

Whereas the ambitious are the true heroes of capitalism. Ruthless pursuit of personal gain is venerated. Children are pushed into the rat race aged seven when they take their first national examination.

It is no surprise, then, that unfashionable loyalty is in short supply. Any spouse faithful to their partner for more than a handful of years is an object of awe amongst their promiscuous friends. The breed of footballer who pledges his career to his home club is near extinction.

The few businesses that remain in family hands are under constant threat from a younger generation motivated purely by profit. Some of the best rewarded people in the world today are venture capitalists, men and women whose only loyalty is to their own bank balance.

Everyone is paid by performance and ill-defined "results". The notion of bringing back the loyalty bonus would have City folk choking on their cocaine.

Society needs people with drive, and those who are prepared to underwrite their ambitions with hard work will always get where they want to be.

But now everyone is expected to compete for their right to do anything. There is no such thing as the secure job, remember? We all need to enrol in Mr Blair's lifelong learning programme, updating our "skills" every 15 minutes, to keep the P45 from the door. (These skills, by the way, do not include bringing up children. Anyone who chooses to stay at home with their kids is seen as woefully unambitious and deserving of contempt.)

No wonder we are all unhappy. Fearful of being judged, we restlessly search for that non-existent lifestyle which combines a brilliant career with raising the perfect family.

Meanwhile, the lack of loyalty from employer and employee damages every part of the community. Values such as customer service and pride in your work are eroded as staff on short-term contracts are put under enormous pressure to meet deadlines. Ring any bells, Railtrack?

At the top, the pressures are different. Over at City of York Council, the chief executive is preparing to move on. David Clark is doing what is best for him and his family, and I wouldn't criticise him for that.

But after five years in charge he is probably just getting to grips with this area, its people and its challenges. That experience will move away with him. Similar experience will be lost when the education director Mike Peters moves away. York is the poorer for such losses.

Every company and organisation both suffers from and encourages the same problem: a knowledge drain. Short termism flourishes.

In such an environment, it is hard to resist living purely for the here and now, for our own immediate fulfilment. Who cares about the poor and vulnerable? The increasingly selfish middle classes are the new needy: we "need" a new kitchen and we "need" a foreign holiday.

Even our loyalty to our children is vanishing. For what will be our legacy to them? A society we have comprehensively trashed.

THE clocks went back on Sunday. What a palaver. I began by altering my wristwatch. Then I adjusted the radio alarm. After lengthy perusal of the instructions, I managed to change the green neon clocks on the video, the hi-fi and the cooker. Next to be updated was the kitchen clock and, finally, the central heating timer.

By this time I'd used up my "extra" hour completely and it was dark.