Honestly, I'm not lying !

I can’t be the only one whose ‘cage is frequently rattled’ when trying to order goods or pay a bill over the phone. Two insurances are shortly due for renewal and payment. I have already spoken to one insurer. I had to quote my date of birth, the policy number, my postcode, the first line of my address and in another case, when talking to my bank; my mothers maiden name !

Without providing this information, we’re going nowhere. The implication is clear. It is possible that I’m lying. It is possible that I am not the person I’m supposed to be, that I am engaged in a dishonest enterprise and that I am possibly a paid up member of the entrepreneurial criminal classes. How did all this come about?

With one foot in the past and hopefully one in the future, I can write without fear of contradiction that the state of affairs described did not exist before about twenty years ago. What has brought about this change? What single event or combination has taken place which has placed a cloud of suspicion over us all, to the point whereby we stand accused by inference of being liars, cheats and imposters ?

It seems to me that we are all suspected of routinely lying and cheating during our day-to-day activities. What has happened to trust and confidence ? Gone, like many other things in modern society. I think that it is possible to make a link between this lack of trust and the recent riots.

All of the above reflects a general acceptance of the abandonment of standards and values by our society. Can anyone recall the last time you heard someone bemoaning the absence of guilt, shame, embarrassment, truthfulness et al. If a sense of these values had been inculcated at a young age into the people responsible for the riots does anyone still believe that we would have witnessed such industrial scale thieving ?

There are still one or two countries where the people live by and observe a code of conduct which includes those values mentioned. They are as susceptible to human greed as anyone but are restrained, disciplined and dignified by a refusal to profit from another’s misery and loss. It is about time that we the British re-discovered the standards and discipline for which we were once renowned.

John Green