Institutionalised duplicity

In the Independent today, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown argues that it is virtually impossible to trust any "official" inquiry into Iraq. Linking the Iraq deception with UK complicity in torture, she says:

We seem to have institutionalised duplicity in the executive, judiciary, intelligence services, Parliament and the Privy Council.

Looking at the ongoing scandal of MPs' expenses claims, this is what links the sometimes trivial with crimes of true enormity. Making false expenses claims to top up your salary might be what the system is set up to allow but it is ultimately dishonest. Politicians are so used to lying, for whatever reason, that they carry over duplicitous behaviour, from personal finance to high politics or vice versa.