The moral decay of our society is as bad at the top as the bottom

Peter Oborne is the Daily Telegraph's chief political commentator.

Tottenham ablaze: the riots began early on Sunday (Photo: AP)

David Cameron, Ed Miliband and the entire British political class came together to denounce the rioters. They were of course right to say that the actions of these looters, arsonists and muggers were abhorrent and criminal, and that the police should be given more support.

But there was also something very phony and hypocritical about all the shock and outrage expressed in parliament. MPs spoke about the week’s dreadful events as if they were nothing to do with them.

I cannot accept that this is the case. Indeed, I believe that the criminality in our streets cannot be dissociated from the moral disintegration in the highest ranks of modern British society. The last two decades have seen a terrifying decline in standards among the British governing elite. It has become acceptable for our politicians to lie and to cheat. An almost universal culture of selfishness and greed has grown up.

It is not just the feral youth of Tottenham who have forgotten they have duties as well as rights. So have the feral rich of Chelsea and Kensington. A few years ago, my wife and I went to a dinner party in a large house in west London. A security guard prowled along the street outside, and there was much talk of the “north-south divide”, which I took literally for a while until I realised that my hosts were facetiously referring to the difference between those who lived north and south of Kensington High Street.

Most of the people in this very expensive street were every bit as deracinated and cut off from the rest of Britain as the young, unemployed men and women who have caused such terrible damage over the last few days. For them, the repellent Financial Times magazine How to Spend It is a bible. I’d guess that few of them bother to pay British tax if they can avoid it, and that fewer still feel the sense of obligation to society that only a few decades ago came naturally to the wealthy and better off.

Yet we celebrate people who live empty lives like this. A few weeks ago, I noticed an item in a newspaper saying that the business tycoon Sir Richard Branson was thinking of moving his headquarters to Switzerland. This move was represented as a potential blow to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, because it meant less tax revenue.

I couldn’t help thinking that in a sane and decent world such a move would be a blow to Sir Richard, not the Chancellor. People would note that a prominent and wealthy businessman was avoiding British tax and think less of him. Instead, he has a knighthood and is widely feted. The same is true of the brilliant retailer Sir Philip Green. Sir Philip’s businesses could never survive but for Britain’s famous social and political stability, our transport system to shift his goods and our schools to educate his workers.

Yet Sir Philip, who a few years ago sent an extraordinary £1 billion dividend offshore, seems to have little intention of paying for much of this. Why does nobody get angry or hold him culpable? I know that he employs expensive tax lawyers and that everything he does is legal, but he surely faces ethical and moral questions just as much as does a young thug who breaks into one of Sir Philip’s shops and steals from it?

Our politicians – standing sanctimoniously on their hind legs in the Commons yesterday – are just as bad. They have shown themselves prepared to ignore common decency and, in some cases, to break the law. David Cameron is happy to have some of the worst offenders in his Cabinet. Take the example of Francis Maude, who is charged with tackling public sector waste – which trade unions say is a euphemism for waging war on low‑paid workers. Yet Mr Maude made tens of thousands of pounds by breaching the spirit, though not the law, surrounding MPs’ allowances.

A great deal has been made over the past few days of the greed of the rioters for consumer goods, not least by Rotherham MP Denis MacShane who accurately remarked, “What the looters wanted was for a few minutes to enter the world of Sloane Street consumption.” This from a man who notoriously claimed £5,900 for eight laptops. Of course, as an MP he obtained these laptops legally through his expenses.

The veteran Labour MP Gerald Kaufman asked the Prime Minister to consider how these rioters can be “reclaimed” by society. Yes, this is indeed the same Gerald Kaufman who submitted a claim for three months’ expenses totalling £14,301.60, which included £8,865 for a Bang & Olufsen television.

Or take the Salford MP Hazel Blears, who has been loudly calling for draconian action against the looters. I find it very hard to make any kind of ethical distinction between Blears’s expense cheating and tax avoidance, and the straight robbery carried out by the looters.

The Prime Minister showed no sign that he understood that something stank about yesterday’s Commons debate. He spoke of morality, but only as something which applies to the very poor: “We will restore a stronger sense of morality and responsibility – in every town, in every street and in every estate.” He appeared not to grasp that this should apply to the rich and powerful as well.

The tragic truth is that Mr Cameron is himself guilty of failing this test. It is scarcely six weeks since he jauntily turned up at the News International summer party, even though the media group was at the time subject to not one but two police investigations. Even more notoriously, he awarded a senior Downing Street job to the former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, even though he knew at the time that Coulson had resigned after criminal acts were committed under his editorship. The Prime Minister excused his wretched judgment by proclaiming that “everybody deserves a second chance”. It was very telling yesterday that he did not talk of second chances as he pledged exemplary punishment for the rioters and looters.

These double standards from Downing Street are symptomatic of widespread double standards at the very top of our society. It should be stressed that most people (including, I know, Telegraph readers) continue to believe in honesty, decency, hard work, and putting back into society at least as much as they take out.

But there are those who do not. Certainly, the so-called feral youth seem oblivious to decency and morality. But so are the venal rich and powerful – too many of our bankers, footballers, wealthy businessmen and politicians.

Of course, most of them are smart and wealthy enough to make sure that they obey the law. That cannot be said of the sad young men and women, without hope or aspiration, who have caused such mayhem and chaos over the past few days. But the rioters have this defence: they are just following the example set by senior and respected figures in society. Let’s bear in mind that many of the youths in our inner cities have never been trained in decent values. All they have ever known is barbarism. Our politicians and bankers, in sharp contrast, tend to have been to good schools and universities and to have been given every opportunity in life.

Something has gone horribly wrong in Britain. If we are ever to confront the problems which have been exposed in the past week, it is essential to bear in mind that they do not only exist in inner-city housing estates.

The culture of greed and impunity we are witnessing on our TV screens stretches right up into corporate boardrooms and the Cabinet. It embraces the police and large parts of our media. It is not just its damaged youth, but Britain itself that needs a moral reformation.

COMMENTAIRE DE DIVERCITY

LE CREPUSCULE DE L’ETHIQUE

L’Europe a survécu à la mort de Dieu, à la mort de l’homme ; survivra-t-elle à la mort annoncée de l’éthique ?

L’Europe souffre depuis des décennies d’une crise éthique profonde comparable à celle qui, au 16^ème siècle, a vu surgir la réforme protestante. L’ennui c’est qu’on ne voit pas poindre à l’horizon l’ombre d’un renouveau éthique. Et les agitations papales à Madrid n’y peuvent rien changer.

Les voyous qui pillent les magasins de Londres n’ont pas de valeurs. Ce sont des barbares.

L’édito hardi du Daily Telegraph montre que les politiciens et les élites qui les condamnent n’en ont guère plus. Il a hélas raison.

La démocratie est en crise profonde, l’Europe également. Le national populisme agressif et xénophobe menace de remplacer notre héritage démocratique par l’arbitraire et le peuple en redemande.

Vivons-nous les dernières années d’une ère de liberté et de relative prospérité? Après les trente glorieuses, les trente calamiteuses, ensuite:la fin du jambon !

Les filets sociaux retiennent les forces révolutionnaires mais pour combien de temps ? Les démocraties s’endettent dangereusement et prennent l’eau de partout, y compris aux Etats-Unis..

Si les émeutes londoniennes devaient, par malheur, embraser l’ensemble des banlieues européennes, ce serait la fin et le déferlement des réfugiés de tous les printemps arabes partout en Europe. Demain on se contentera d’ un pain très, très amer; qui n’aura de pain que le nom.

Dans son plaidoyer flamboyant, l'éditorialiste du Telegraph met directement et violemment en cause les comportements éthiques des élites économiques et politiques britanniques lesquelles se déchainent contre le comportement des émeutiers. Son analyse fait un tabac sur la toile : près de cinq mille réactions de lecteurs !

Résumons son propos : pour répondre aux émeutes qui secouent le pays depuis le week-end dernier, le Premier ministre a voulu se montrer draconien, au point de tomber dans des excès de populisme sécuritaire. N’est pas Churchill le premier Cameron venu… «La contre-attaque sera cinglante”, a-t-il assuré devant les Parlementaires, après avoir prévenu que « toute personne condamnée doit s'attendre à faire de la prison».

La démesure des décisions judiciaires, exigées par le chef du chef du gouvernement, fait débat. Des critiques acerbes s'élèvent à l’encontre de l'analyse des autorités au pouvoir. Le Premier Ministre a dénoncé «la culture» des émeutiers, «glorifiant la violence, témoignant d’un manque de respect à l’égard de l'autorité de la part de véritables « gangs des rues ». Pour y faire pièce, il réclame «plus de disciplines dans nos écoles», «un système judiciaire criminel qui marque “une frontière nette entre le bien et le mal”.
Oborne estime pour sa part que « la criminalité dans les rues ne saurait être dissociée de la désintégration morale des plus hauts responsables de la société britannique. Les deux dernières décennies ont entraîné un déclin terrifiant des critères moraux au sein de l'élite gouvernante britannique. Que des politiciens mentent ou trichent est devenu « acceptable » ou de moins ne semble choquer personne.

“Il n'y a pas que la jeunesse démontée de Tottenham qui a oublié qu'elle a des devoirs à côté de ses droits; c’est pareil pour certains rupins de Chelsea et Kensington”.

Peter Oborne considère que les élites londoniennes sont pour la plupart « aussi déracinées et coupées du reste de la Grande-Bretagne que les jeunes désœuvrés sans emploi qui ont causé de terribles ravages”.

Peu d'entre eux s'empressent de payer leurs impôts s'ils peuvent l’éviter. Beaucoup ne sentent aucune obligation envers la société, un sentiment qui semblait pourtant naturel il y a à peine quelques décennies encore, même chez les nantis». Et de citer les exemples de Richard Branson, le patron de Virgin, ou de Philip Green, le patron de Topshop, qui, pour éluder l’impôt sur leurs bénéfices faramineux ont domicilié leur société dans des paradis fiscaux.

Les politiques ne vaudraient pas mieux que l'élite économique comme l'a révélé le scandale récent concernant des dépenses de parlementaires renommés.

Parmi les orateurs qui se sont déchainés contre les jeunes au Parlement de Westminster, le Daily Telegraph pointe Gerald Kaufman qui avait exigé un remboursement de 8.865£ (près de 10.000 euros) pour un vulgaire téléviseur. La paille et la poutre! Ce n’est qu’un exemple parmi cent.

Surtour, Oborne relève que ,« le Premier Ministre excusait son erreur de jugement en embauchant l'ancien directeur de rédaction Andrew Coulson en clamant que chacun mérite une seconde chance». Pas question à l’évidence de seconde chance pour les émeutiers et les casseurs. “Cette morale à deux vitesses est symptomatique des « doubles standards » répandus au sommet de la société anglaise. “

“Something has gone horribly wrong in Britain. If we are ever to confront the problems which have been exposed in the past week, it is essential to bear in mind that they do not only exist in inner-city housing estates.

The culture of greed and impunity we are witnessing on our TV screens stretches right up into corporate boardrooms and the Cabinet. It embraces the police and large parts of our media. It is not just its damaged youth, but Britain itself that needs a moral reformation.”

En vérité, ce qui gangrène la société anglaise et toutes les sociétés européennes c’est l’agonie de l’éthique de la base au sommet.

Les contrastes entre les quartiers de déréliction londoniens, parisiens, bruxellois, anversois sont un phénomène de société européen. Tôt ou tard cette non-mixité des quartiers mettra à mal la cohésion sociale et entrainera des tensions insupportables.

Vouloir instaurer de force une mixité sociale à l’école est un leurre.

Il faut commencer par mixifier les quartiers ce à quoi contribue, qu’on le veuille ou non la gentrification.

It is not just its damaged youth, but Britain itself that needs a moral reformation.

Ce qui est vrai pour le Royaume-Uni l’est également pour l’ensemble de l’Europe.

A quand le réveil, le sursaut éthique européen ?

MG