Were it not for whistle-blowers in the press, forcing them to respond by hastily changing their small-print, they would doubtless go unchecked altogether. Governments give these charlatans full rein as they are indirect tax-collectors and, it seems, can do no wrong just as long as the Treasury is getting it's share of the cake in the form of billions in taxes received from them.

Were a government to move to protect citizens from these financial raptors, calling upon them to be honourable, decent and fair, the Chancellor of the Exchequer would be unable to pursue the moronic party policies extant at any given moment, such as the current ideological and social engineering program, Political Correctness agenda and construction of the self-serving, monolithic, bureaucratic white elephant that is the public sector of today.

The assumption that these 'public servants' are academics, business organisers and oil the wheels of industry is a fallacy. Academics? Some of them may be, but the majority have a low animal cunning when it comes to feathering their own nests. Brilliant business organisers? This year alone, their activities have crushed the living daylights out of the British economy and, far from oiling the wheels of industry, our leaders have greased the slippery slope down which half of the country's businesses have already slipped and the remainder are struggling to ascend, dragging these spongers behind them.

What the public needs now is to isolate itself from all of the above and the creation of an alternative banking system that incorporates mortgages and insurances but is totally transparent, without 'small' print and run by a staff that is remunerated in a reasonable manner, not rewarded for failure with massive bonus payments stolen from investors.

The 'big 5' banks would find themselves, like Noah when the tide went out, high and dry with all their animals crying "Foul!". It is pointless to attempt the conversion of the existing moguls of finance - leopards never change their spots.

Similarly, mortgage companies that have foreclosed in a knee-jerk fashion, shattering confidence in the property market and fanning the flames of hysteria, including at the upper end of that market, can be likened to sailors who deliberately drill holes in the bottom of their boats whilst a long way out to sea... stupid.

Insurance companies selling long-term life-cover policies to elderly people can only be termed cynical. At the end of the day, such policies are a travesty. Anybody capable of adding two and two together and coming up with four could save and invest their premiums better by far than so-called fund 'managers' by sticking a pin in a list of investment possibilities whilst wearing a blindfold. It would appear that the professionals do it that way!

Savaging the 'middle classes' and their small-to-medium businesses and shattering confidence has it's worst effects upon the working majority whose jobs are suddenly at risk and with them, their homes and financial security. As companies shed labour and even close down altogether, the domino effect gathers speed, one medium-sized business closing can lead to a few dozen small businesses that had been engaged in trade with it also being obliged to shut their doors for the last time.

Whether it is a thousand employees or a small handful, becoming unemployed at such a time is a terrifying and almost hopeless situation in which to be - not that anyone receiving a handsome remuneration package out of the public purse would have the slightest idea of how that would feel nor, thanks to the job security that goes with it, be in any danger of finding out.

Recently, the people of Britain have had their faith in the Establishment tested to the limit - government policy-making, state education, the health service, policing, taxation, retirement pensions - the list of institutions now in tatters is ever-increasing.

Figures are bandied about with no thought for the ridicule to which they subject their authors. How, for example, can it possibly cost more than £9 billion to create a database of a mere 61 million people for the purposes of issuing identity cards? It is laughable, especially when you consider how many of those people are already included on a raft of government databases relating to education, health and taxation, to name but a few, so that those individuals not already included on any of those databases must be few and far between. If not, then where do all those statistics come from?

Entries on existing databases could be exported to the new database without a great deal of difficulty by anyone with a modicum of database and computer knowledge and the rest of the operation includes nothing that could amount to such a gargantuan sum of public money.

If our leaders actually knew anything about the practicalities of life, they would probably have realised that, before glibly bandying such figures about. On the other hand, perhaps they are well aware of those practicalities and have made the mistake of believing that it is the public that has no idea what such an endeavour might cost.

Incidentally, don't worry about inclusion in this database, the resulting master disk is soon bound to disappear, having been left behind at a pole-dancing club one lunchtime, sold to a mail-order catalogue or abandoned on the seat of a bus, to be swept up by the cleaners and dumped in a wheelie bin. After all, what's nine billion of your money to these bureaucrats? Just a drop in the bottomless bucket - the ineptitude of this government knows no bounds.