Question Time tonight comes for the first time from a foreign country – Lutonistan.

On the panel we have transport secretary Justine Greening MP, shadow Olympics minister Tessa Jowell MP, secretary-shagger Paddy Ashdown, Tony Robinson (the irritating broadcaster one, not the EDL one) and the businessman Terry Smith, chief executive of the City brokerage Tullett Prebon.

This Week will follow, and we have the standard lineup of Andrew Neil with Michael Portillo, plus the failed postman Alan Johnson

This may be the last LiveChat for a while. CoverItLive has decided to charge for the service and it isn’t going to be cheap for the blog to subscribe for the number of participants we have. TheEye is urgently looking for something similar as a replacement but is so far drawing a blank. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas?

You are very welcome to join us once again. Please play nicely.

Hello everyone, just a quick post to let you know I have returned from the land of the Magic Money Trees, la belle France. I was staying down in Menton and had a lovely spot of weather.

But tired after all the travel today but wanted to sincerely thank Alan for all his excellent posts in my absence.

I haven’t tuned into much BBC when in holidays but did see their ODIOUS coverage of IRA Godfather McGuinness meeting Her Majesty, as contrived a piece of slimy political choreography as one could imagine. Did watch Sky when away, it is also grim viewing and the only saying grace is we do not HAVE to fund the trash they produce.

Will ease myself back into the saddle over the next few days but wanted to commend THIS EXCELLENT SITE to you if you are thinking of staying in a lovely Riviera location. It’s run by a friend who ALSO contributes to some of our debates on B-BBC, as NRG, and I thoroughly recommend it to you!

Importing Poverty  

In 2007 the Sunday Times had a story entitled ‘Despair of 3,000 Poles sleeping rough in UK’.

It related how the homeless charity ‘The Passage’ had to stop its ‘open door’ policy and turn immigrants away because the numbers were unmanageable…‘the queue never got any shorter’ even after 18 months.

(However like all Left wing organisations they don’t see the contradiction in their position…they close their doors when they run out of money but complain when the government shuts up shop for the same reason…need a Plan B obviously)

Not quite the rosy picture of immigration that the BBC likes to present with Mark Easton sat on the comfortable BBC sofa getting out his charts and showing us all the economic benefits and the fabulous cosmopolitan nature of London…unless you’re in the vicinity of the Somali or Turkish or Iraqi gangs roaming the streets….but no, we don’t mention the crime….there’s always some fringe elements who don’t represent the majority.

In 2007 the BBC did report this from a Croydon homeless charity telling us about the essential work being done to rescue poverty stricken immigrants:

Thirty years on, the charity is finding its workload has grown substantially. Over the last decade, its client group is being continually increased by those suffering from poverty.

“We’re appalled and of course there’s tremendous pressure on our resources … we set up as a homeless organisation …. what we’re now operating as, is a maintenance organisation to help people who are in extreme poverty”, laments Jad Adams the charity’s chairperson.

However the BBC doesn’t seem too keen to report what the Nightwatch charity now says  as it is less than enthusiastic about mass, uncontrolled immigration and its effect in taking away resources from the poor who are native to the country:

Homeless charity ‘swamped’ by eurozone migrants

A homelessness charity has called on the Government to restrict immigration, saying it is being “swamped” with destitute people fleeing the eurozone’s troubled economies.

The Nightwatch charity in Croydon say it has seen a huge rise in jobless and homeless Europeans.

Chairman Jad Adams said the charity could collapse if the Government did not stem the flow of immigration as the Eurozone crisis deepens.

He said the charity, which receives grants from including the National Lottery and Croydon Council, cannot increase its capacity “endlessly” and its finances are now under strain.

The right of free movement between members states of the European Union agreed under treaties is being abused, it claims.

“I fear that many people we see as clients are not exercising their treaty rights to come to look for work, but it is simply more attractive to be poor in this country than in some others.

“The free movement of poverty is putting unacceptable strains on charitable work.”

“Indigent arrivals from other countries would put an unacceptable strain on ourselves and other charities dealing with the poorest people in society.”

Labour was told about the likely failure of NHS PFI schemes even before they were signed up to and completely ignored the warnings…..something you might think would peek the BBC’s interest considering that the PFI agreements are now bringing the NHS to its knees in many hospitals.

Apparently not.

Good job we still have other sources of news to rely on:

Don’t sign, hospitals warned before PFI deal

‘An NHS hospital trust was officially warned not to sign the £500 million PFI deal that left it on the brink of bankruptcy, an independent report discloses.

Peterborough and Stamford NHS Foundation Trust should never have agreed a deal to obtain funding from private companies in 2007, it says.

Monitor, the hospital regulator, warned that there was “significant doubt” that the deal was affordable before the former Labour government approved the private funding. The trust, which runs two hospitals, is now saddled with huge interest payments.

The regulator raised its concerns in January 2007, copying in the Department of Health under Andy Burnham, now the shadow health secretary.

“We believe the long-term affordability of the proposal to be in significant doubt,” it said at the time.

It reiterated this view in even stronger terms in April of the same year, when it raised “significant concerns as to the scheme’s affordability”.

But the deal was signed in June 2007 and the trust’s finances went downhill.’

Labour are demanding that bankers be prosecuted under criminal law for their actions…..unfortunately because of a failure to impose and implement sufficiently rigorous regulations on banks by Ed Balls when he was in charge of this sector the banks cannot be charged under criminal law….because the laws don’t exist, as admitted by one of Labour’s very own Lord’s…..and, as yet, completely ignored by the BBC.

The BBC does ask:

‘Who was responsible?’  for the Banks actions.  The answer……

Mr Cameron said “the whole management team have got some serious questions to answer. Let them answer those questions first.

“Who was responsible? Who was going to take responsibility? How are they being held accountable?”

Labour party leader, Ed Miliband, said: “This cannot be about a slap on the wrist.

“The people that have done the wrong thing in this case should face the full force of the law… including criminal prosecutions.”

No sign of this part of the story  on the BBC for some reason:

Barclays Libor scandal: Ed Balls ‘failed to regulate banks’

Ed Balls has been accused of failing to regulate banks effectively at the time of the Barclays rate rigging scandal as a senior Labour politician admitted: “It’s our fault”.

In the House of Lords, Labour’s deputy chief whip, Lord Tunnicliffe, admitted his party was responsible for gaps in the law.

Lord Tunnicliffe said: “Criminal sanctions are extraordinarily difficult to bring about because of the burden of criminal law.

“It is fair to say though that you can’t find them in the current legislation. And, yes, OK, it’s our fault.” He added quickly: “I hope my leaders don’t hear me say that.”

The BBC’s reporting of the latest bank scandal concerning Barclays, probably only the first bank in the firing line, misses out a major question and uses language that is immoderate and unusual for the BBC.

The BBC is freely using ‘lied’ or ‘liars’ in relation to how Barclays carried out its business. In truth of course this is an appropriate description but the normal practise is to infer they lied using more restrained language…‘they manipulated the market and misled others about their financial stability’ etc.

For the BBC ‘Lied’ is ‘unparliamnetary’ language and I would suggest that this was a deliberate editorial decision to adopt such language in order to inflame opinion against the banks in general and to raise the stakes. (Should that be needed…unlikely as it maybe) Peston or whoever is unlikely to be using that word without approval from above.

The second point is one made by the Telegraph…where were the Regulators?…such market manipulation must have been obvious…and if not then a question has to be asked why such an important financial system was so easily manipulated?

The BBC have not gone down that avenue but I would have thought that it was one of the major questions that need answering.

The BBC highlights calls for Bob Diamond to be sacked ….yet this was the BBC that gave immense support to get the ‘not such an economic genius’ Gordon Brown re-elected in 2010 and even now aids and abets Brown’s two henchmen, Ed Miliband and Ed Balls.

Remember this was the Labour Government that stole £100 Billion from private pensions schemes to fund its election campaigns by spending that money on ‘vote catching’ schemes for its core supporters, the Labour Government that robbed southern council tax payers and channelled their money to what they hoped would be Labour voters in the North. This was the Labour Government that imported millions of immigrants in the hope they would vote Labour and when it comes to a referendum on Europe will, due to their lack of deep connections to Britain, be pro-European Union. I could go on.

And yet no BBC examination of such a corrupt, tawdry history….but when someone suggests that Barclays were ‘systematically dishonest’ on the Today programme almost instantly it was the headline on the BBC Frontpage.

As often said 13 years of Labour corruption and dishonesty have been wiped from the BBC archives.

You can only hope that a new Director General will be someone of substance and integrity who respects the traditions, responsibilities and trust invested in the BBC and begins to demand the BBC and its journalists start to fulfil the promises laid out in its Charter.

On his own of course that could be a tall order which is why the responsibility for overseeing the BBC’s compliance with its charter should be stripped from the BBC Trust and given to a completely new body,  independent of the BBC and Government.

Until both things happen I don’t think that anyone can have confidence in the impartiality and accuracy of the BBC nor in its requirement to handle complaints in an appropriate manner.

An excellent spot by ‘Tommy Atkins’ in the comments:

Spotlight falls on Televisa, Mexico’s all-powerful TV station

Critics accuse Televisa of manipulating politicians and viewers and threatening democracy.

For decades Televisa‘s logo – a golden human eye gazing at the world through a television screen – captured the company’s success at controlling and dominating what Mexicans watched.

The media firm, the biggest in Latin America, produced soap operas, quiz shows, films and news bulletins that reflected and reinforced the country’s concentration of economic and political power.

The company’s alleged use – abuse, say critics – of programming for political and commercial ends has become an explosive issue in Sunday’s election.

“The power of the television networks does not lie in their economic power but in their ability to manipulate opinion. About 98% of homes have a television, and it is on between four to six hours a day in around 60% of homes,” said Purificación Carpinteyro, a former under-secretary of communications.

“The degree of concentration in television is an attack on democracy. It gives them enormous power to extort. The [networks] have the political class under control because nobody wants to be insulted or rubbed out or exhibited on TV. The television calling somebody corrupt is tantamount to a judgment from the supreme court.”

Any thing starting to sound familiar?  And I’m not talking Murdoch.

Here’s another Guardian story but again it illustrates the same prejudices that are hard wired into the psyches of the BBCers in their loathing of anything that smacks of ‘Right Wing’ populism….ie anything that the general public might believe or enjoy.

I have included much more of the material than is stricly necessary because it is of interest regardless of BBC bias concerns….read on…..

Unmitigated lefty loathing of the Daily Mail….hardly a day goes by on the BBC or in the Guardian when the daily Mail is not mentioned in a dismissive and sneering tone. It is the one paper that seems to inherently stick in the craw of the left….presenter after presenter will say something of a leftwing nature and then reel back in mock horror saying ‘that’ll be headlines in the Mail tomorrow’.

The Mail reports some scientific research into brain responses to certain stimuli and gets the  Guardianista hot under the collar and very excited and overwrought:

Racism is ‘hardwired’ into the human brain – and people can be prejudiced without knowing it

The Guardian response is to emote outrage and damaged sensibilities as well as proclaiming the inherent nastiness of all Right wingers….inherent?  Surely not?

What this ‘racism is hardwired’ story says about the Daily Mail

The misuse of science to support the idea that racism is inevitable forms a persistent, low drumbeat on the right

The Daily Mail has bad news for “right-thinking” people everywhere: ‘Racism is “hardwired” into the human brain’. Even well-meaning progressives “make unconscious decisions based on a person’s race”. It is inescapable. To claim that racism is hardwired is to say that it is natural.

The one small hitch in this story is adverted to in that shopworn phrase “scientists say”. A discordant note should always sound in the reader’s mind when a journalist opens an article with this assurance.

For, in point of fact, scientists don’t say.

…..actually the scientists did say that racism is not a conscious act…..‘Thus far, we have obtained modest evidence about these processes as they operate in our brains, unbeknownst to our conscious selves.  A network of interacting brain regions is important in the unintentional, implicit expression of racial attitudes and its control. People tend to show unintentional indications of race bias, even when they are motivated to be non-prejudiced

You can have an implicit bias and choose not to act on it, and the DLPFC may be trying to regulate the emotional responses that conflict with our egalitarian goals and beliefs.’

Clearly the problem is the Guardianista’s own prejudices, presumably ones which he has consciously chosen to adopt as a lifestyle ‘accessory’….First thing to note of course is that he says ‘that shopworn phrase “scientists say”. A discordant note should always sound in the reader’s mind when a journalist opens an article with this assurance.’

I am amused because I’m certain somewhere in the Guardian there is an article or two that tells me in no uncertain terms climate change is totally man made because ‘scientists say it is’.

Moving on, a session on Google quickly brings up article after article from ‘respectable’ publishers…many from the Guardian itself…saying exactly what the Mail has said.

Clearly the Guardianista has a purely ideological take on this and the facts have little bearing on the matter…however here for your interest are some of the facts as report after report reveal…..

From the Guardian

They just can’t help it

What kind of brain do you have? There really are big differences between the male and female brain, says Simon Baron-Cohen. And they could help explain conditions such as autism Do you have a male or female brain?

From a science journal:

Hard-wired xenophobia and facial similarity effects.

One brain-based argument Hanft didn’t include is likely one of the most potent: our brains are wired to trust people who look like us more than those who don’t. No doubt part of this tendency dates back to hunter-gatherer days when recognizing members of your tribe was important, and members of other tribes might be a threat. One interesting piece of research showed that facial similarity was a major factor in trust, implying that “differentiation of kin” is a key factor.

From the Lefty Washington Post:

The Egalitarian Brain” by New York University psychologist David Amodio, a chapter in the new book “Are We Born Racist?,” ….our brains are wired to make snap judgments on race. ….our brains will never be “color blind.” Of course, our brains also have a neocortex that can “override our immediate, but sometimes inappropriate, reactions to people from other groups,” .

From a psychologist:

Stone Age survival needs hard-wired into our brains to create a two-tiered system of conscious and subconscious thought. Elucidated by 2002 Nobel Prize winner in economics Daniel Kahneman, the systems are divided into the prehistoric System One (Gut) and System Two (Head). Gut is quick, evolutionary and designed to react to mortal threats, while Head is more modern, conscious thought capable of analyzing statistics and being rational….decisions are mostly made by the gut .

From the hallowed BBC:

Are political beliefs hard-wired?

If it was possible to “see” political belief in the structure of the brain, and if science could predict whether a person was left or right wing.

The obvious answer was to take a look at the brains of two MP’s with diametrically opposing views – step forward Thatcherite Conservative Alan Duncan, and Labour stalwart Stephen Pound, who agreed to undergo a structural brain scan using Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI.

The results showed a strong correlation between between political belief and two specific regions of the brain. The grey matter of the anterior cingulate was significantly thicker amongst those who described themselves as liberal, or left wing, while the amygdala – an area associated with emotional processing – was larger in those who regarded themselves as conservative or right wing.

“It’s a remarkable finding” says professor Rees. “We were very surprised to find two areas of the brain from which we could predict political attitudes.”

From the Independent:

Brain shape ‘shows political allegiance’

Neuroscientists are examining whether political allegiances are hard-wired into people after finding evidence that the brains of conservatives are a different shape to those of left-wingers.

Scans of 90 students’ brains at University College London (UCL) uncovered a “strong correlation” between the thickness of two particular areas of grey matter and an individual’s views.

The research was carried out by Geraint Rees director of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience

From the Guardian:

The Optimism Bias by Tali Sharot: extract

Our brains may be hardwired to look on the bright side, says neuroscientist Tali Sharot in this extract from her new book

We like to think of ourselves as rational creatures. We watch our backs, weigh the odds, pack an umbrella. But both neuroscience and social science suggest that we are more optimistic than realistic.

Hardwired for hope?

Findings from a study I conducted a few years ago with prominent neuroscientist Elizabeth Phelps suggest this…Why would our brains be wired in this way? It is tempting to speculate that optimism was selected by evolution precisely because, on balance, positive expectations enhance the odds of survival….and emerging data that optimism is linked to specific genes.

From the Guardian:

The brain… it makes you think. Doesn’t it?

Are we governed by unconscious processes? Neuroscience believes so.

It is clear at this point that we are irrevocably tied to the 3lb of strange computational material found within our skulls. The brain is utterly alien to us, and yet our personalities, hopes, fears and aspirations all depend on the integrity of this biological tissue. How do we know this? Because when the brain changes, we change.  As much as we like to think about the body and mind living separate existences, the mental is not separable from the physical

Indeed, brains and culture operate in a feedback loop, each influencing the other.

Nonetheless, culture does leave its signature in the circuitry of the individual brain. If you were to examine an acorn by itself, it could tell you a great deal about its surroundings – from moisture to microbes to the sunlight conditions of the larger forest. By analogy, an individual brain reflects its culture. ….it does give a richer understanding of the wellspring of our ideas, moral intuitions, biases and beliefs. Sometimes these internal drives are genetically embedded, other times they are culturally instructed – but in all cases their mark ends up written into the fabric of the brain.

From the Guardian:

Natural born killers

Does scientific evidence that war is hardwired into human society mean that we are doomed to live in perpetual conflict?

According to an emerging theory reported in New Scientist, “not only is war as ancient as human kind … but it has played an integral role in our evolution”.

Experts from numerous disciplines  now seem to agree that warfare is hardwired into our societies and behaviour.

Oh NOOO…from the Daily Mail:

Right-wingers are less intelligent than left wingers, says study

Children with low intelligence grow up to be prejudiced. Right-wing views make the less intelligent feel ‘safe’.  Right-wingers tend to be less intelligent than left-wingers, and people with low childhood intelligence tend to grow up to have racist and anti-gay views, says a controversial new study.

Funny how the Guardianistas don’t object to that one …in fact they love it……　

From the Guardian:

The right’s stupidity spreads, enabled by a too-polite left

We have been too polite to mention the Canadian study published last month in the journal Psychological Science, which revealed that people with conservative beliefs are likely to be of low intelligence. Paradoxically it was the Daily Mail that brought it to the attention of British readers last week. It feels crude, illiberal to point out that the other side is, on average, more stupid than our own. But this, the study suggests, is not unfounded generalisation but empirical fact.

There is plenty of research showing that low general intelligence in childhood predicts greater prejudice towards people of different ethnicity or sexuality in adulthood. Open-mindedness, flexibility, trust in other people: all these require certain cognitive abilities. Understanding and accepting others – particularly “different” others – requires an enhanced capacity for abstract thinking.

Yes, conservatism thrives on low intelligence and poor information.

And last but not least:

HARD WIRED TO BE A SOFT TOUCH

So on the one hand right wingers are of low intelligence and so pre-disposed to be racist by their underpowered little brains…on the other hand the brain is not hardwired to be racist so it must therefore be a conscious decison to be racist based on some form of presumably intelligent reasoning.

The real reason the Guardianista hated the story of course was that it suggested that even he, in the darkest corners of his mind, was just perhaps a little bit racist however hard he tried to play it down and hide it….except of course in the case of right wingers or Daily Mail readers who are fair game for any abuse.

And a final comment from discerning reader of the Guardian:

daffers56

27 June 2012 4:44PM

Perhaps it is now time for the Daily Mail to be exposed for the nasty, irresponsible and immoral rag it is! This type of journalism spreads lies, falsehoods and disinformation. This in turn leads to the erosion of a decent and cohesive Society. We must have a free press, but with those same freedoms must come responsibility. If individuals behaved in similar ways they would be subject to the rule of the Law. We can only guess how deep this rot extends and who sanctions it?

Indeed…er except most such stories come from the pages of the Guardian itself.

Whilst Eddie Mair on R4 attacks Bankers as ‘greedy, unscrupulous liars’  nowhere to be seen is an expose of Labour’s underhand and corrupt methods where it funds ‘charities’ that then go out and promote a Labour agenda…..if a ‘mere’ blog like Guido Fawkes can dig up these stories the question is why can’t the all powerful and well resourced BBC?

Perhaps the will is missing.

The BBC has indulged its anti-Establishment leanings and satisfied its simmering desire to hack away at the Police Force in a polemical onslaught based on, well not very much really. They drag up a few examples of bad practise but how many good ones?  None.  Hardly what you might call balanced or anywhere near the truth. 

It is what you might call a dangerous lie being peddled by the BBC in its film ‘Can We Trust The Police?’.

The truth is that this programme is not about the Police it’s all about assuaging the guilt ridden ‘hideously white’ BBC employees who are ground down by the angst of inheriting the history of imperialism and colonialism that is now perpetuated in the ‘ethnic’ ghettoes of our cities….until the people of colour break free from the yoke of the whiteman and his oppression they will never succeed and prosper and develop in their own right, fulfilling their destiny to be independent free willed people. What is going on is not crime but revolution, an insurgency against an alien culture imposed upon them….until they break free from the bonds that tie them to a system that keeps them in a cycle of deprivation of spirit, wealth and humanity they are in effect still slaves under the whiphand of their white masters.

Bet that’s on some BBC employee’s blog.

The BBC is in a highly privileged position….it has the ability to choose a subject, make a film about it and then broadcast it to the world.

The subject of that film of course has little say in what impression of him is given to the world.

The BBC is at liberty to make any claim it likes as long as it believes it can back it up in some shape or form. The subject of the film can only make an effective complaint after the film has been broadcast by which time the damage is done regardless of whether the BBC has been ‘mistaken’ and issues an apology.

The BBC has all the power…it decides the subject matter, it decides who presents a film, who appears on it to give ‘evidence’, what questions are asked and what answers are broadcast and of course the overall shape of the film once it goes through the editing process so that it arrives at the required conclusions.

The recent BBC film ‘Can We Trust The Police’ is a case in point showing the BBC at its worst when it sets out to answer a question that it has already  written the answer to…it just needs to ‘find’ the ‘proof’.

They chose Adam Deacon to present the show. He is a mixed race rapper/actor who claims to have suffered police harassment himself and set out to show that this is in fact the way the police work as a norm rather than the exception….essentially he is a rebel without a cause…sure some police go too far….but not all by a long stretch…and I could make a similar film about any job …..Harold Shipman?  Stafford Hospital, Firemen….and of course media johnnies who set out to spread alarm, fear and anger in their various reports either here in ‘deprived’ communities or with regard to events in the Middle East where ill conceived prejudices and distorted views lead to ‘angry’ Muslims and terrorism in the UK….you could make a valid claim that 7/7 was a direct result of BBC coverage of the Iraq War and the run up to it.

The choice of presenter immediately tells you that this is not a serious programme and is unconcerned about providing balance and truth, and yet it is a subject of enormous importance and the wrong impression of the police given by the programme could have serious repercussions.

Is he going to be biased? Yes he is, and he was…how does it serve anybodies interest to have someone who is already predisposed to hate the police present a programme that seems deliberately designed to cause even more deep distrust of them?

It is starkly apparent this programme set out to sow distrust amongst certain communities towards the police and to reinforce impressions given by vested interests who seek to create conflict in order to gain their own influence.

A highly irresponsible programme that is at heart deeply dishonest and malign in intention and that paints every police officer now serving as racist and violent.

The fallout from reinforcing such stereotypes is a steep fall off in respect and trust for not only the police but all ‘Establishment’ institutions and the Law itself….resulting in anarchy and more riots….which it must be said the BBC seemed to revel in as it gave them the chance to bash the police, always a favourite, and of course to blame the Tory cuts for making people desperate and deprived…though mostly depraved.

The BBC stance to policing…arresting criminals makes them feel harassed and humiliated, angry and alienated…..the answer clearly is not to arrest them or punish them in any way…..a happy criminal is one who of course won’t commit any crimes any more now that he has a sunny disposition and the respect and understanding of Authority.

Dwayne (sometime BBC social alienation consultant) says:  ‘Leevin skool soon, carrears teecher sed cud be ‘bergler’ now as a carreer choyse like. Terific i Thort, no GSCEs like but skool of hard nocks an all, QBE or so the nonce of a privat skool kid i mugged sed i was.

Aparantly sign up as bergler an you get a guverment card that you take too argos an pick wot you like outta the catalog an the council even giv yoo a showffered motor home. No nite shift no longer, helth an safty is execlent like…no broken windows too climb throo and no homeowners hittin you. A dreem job like. peachey.

Saves the posesive homeowners crying on coppers shoalders, saves the pigs havin to come lookin for me an upsettin me mam, an saves money not puttin me in the slammer. All for the cost of a few argos consoomabals (thrown away soon by throwway sosiaty anyways) an’ made for pense in chinky land.’

The Colonel says: ‘And how about those damned druggies eh? I say conscript the blighters, put ’em in khaki and march ’em into Stalinist penal battalions over to Africa and Cambodia to clear mines by stamping through the bush. Damned fine method, worked in WW 2, saw off the Hun and won the War on the Nazis, should work on the War on Drugs, what?’

The BBC says:

“Do it. Do it if it feels good. Do it now. The church is wrong. Your parents are old fogies. Everyone is doing it. Don’t be left out. You’re entitled to something for nothing. There are no bad consequences. And besides, you won’t get caught.  In many ways our society has failed you, ignoring the hard-won lessons of history, the accumulated wisdom of the ages, the maxims of morality. Truths revealed, experienced and long respected are not well taught to most in your generation. “