When I was a child the adults in my family believed in the Establishment.
They trusted the forces of law and order and while they may have had reservations about certain politicians, overall respect for Westminster was undeniable. Given such giants as Clement Attlee and Nye Bevan it was well founded.
I was taught not to spend all I earned and that the local bank was the safest place to put my savings.
Trust in hospitals was implicit, certainly no one expected their loved ones to die of starvation or neglect in their care.
The prime minister and his party ruled the country, the buck stopped firmly with him. There were no excuses nor were there any given.
So what’s happened since then? Why are we so much less likely to trust the Establishment than our forefathers?
Put simply, we are in shock. Did any of us really believe our pensions and life savings placed diligently in the care of our bank would be used for high risk casino-style gambling?
Would we have ever expected our bank executives would pocket millions as our savings sank into the abyss created by their greed?
Would we have expected it to take 23 years for the families of the Hillsborough victims to get justice or that over 160 witness statements would be deliberately altered by the police to obscure the truth?
Would we have foreseen a day when our prime minister stood idly by expressing his frustration that a terrorist suspect could not be sent back to whence he came?
Would we ever have considered the depth of greed perpetrated by MPs systematically manipulating their expenses or the double standards operated by councils cutting services while overspending on internal budgets?
We certainly didn’t expect hospitals to replace elementary hygiene with wanton neglect.
So who do we look up to when the Establishment proves corrupt and totally unworthy?
The summer Jubilee celebrations supplied the answer.
Thank God we have the Queen.
