Are citizens of the disunited kingdom especially gullible? Philip Johnston has asked in an touchingly naive article in the Buckingham Palace House Journal, aka the Daily Telegraph. His query concerned the alarming growth of scams operated by confidence tricksters and other low life against mainly elderly victims.
To answer your question, Philip, let's consider it in the wider context of institutionalised greed and dishonesty that has come to characterise 'Rip-off Britain'. Here are just a few examples:
* A social system in which 90 per cent of the wealth is controlled by five per cent of the population (approx figures);
* A monarchy with seven palaces and vast financial resources (most of them hidden) actually subsidised by its subjects;
* An endless influx of immigrants exploiting an already overburdened economy;
* Spivs running the banks and energy suppliers;
* An ever-widening polarisation between rich and poor, with thousands of working families no longer able to feed their children...
Obviously, we are especially gullible. Only a nation of suckers would meekly tolerate such gross anomalies. Get a grip, dear boy.
