This week’s fascinating events at Westminster and Wapping about the Murdoch empire – News International – have been truly shocking. The worst revelation has been the craven behaviour of national politicians and people in the police – all of whom we need to be able to trust in a mature society – towards journalists’ bosses. They lived in fear of Murdoch and his employees, so they sucked up to the media mogul, wined and dined with him; even employed his corrupt people in the PM’s office. Fear of standing up to corruption is itself corrupting. When the true authority becomes the messenger rather than the elected politician and the appointed law enforcer, a descent into an unethical society is inevitable.  The media must exist to challenge public authority in a transparent manner, not by blackmail. 

On a very, very different scale, fear of standing up to public authority can be corrosive. There is an increasing number of vulnerable people in today’s society. These are people who are grateful for what they can get to pay the landlord, pay their council taxes, their utility bills and buy their food. In a relatively affluent area like Uttlesford there are many people in this situation.

So they daren’t challenge authorities that make them travel great distances with no car to get their entitlements. They keep quiet when councils introduce hi-tec systems that suit the bureaucrats and the bulk of the population but make life difficult for them; they don’t want to be seen to be oddballs; they want to maintain their dignity. Some find it too expensive to hang on the phone for an answer when they have a personal problem; and anyway, they don’t really want to complain because they think they might get an even worse service if they do. In the past week I have been contacted by three people who fall into some of these categories. I find that very worrying.