Will football return to being a global symbol of unity?

By Patrick Thomas

In the most overused historical cliché of the 1914 Christmas Day Truce, football served as a symbol of unity between two warring nations and allowed for a hyperbolic festive metaphor about the solidarity of humanity in the face of hardship. 100 years later, the FBI have begun an investigation into the sport’s international governing body after the biggest corruption scandal of the 21st century.

Britain needs to demand higher standards from those at the top

By Lucette Davies

Life in Britain has changed in a  way that I never would have thought imaginable when I was in my late teens.  I fear that many of us are accepting the changes we see, feeling there is nothing we can do or forgetting that 30 years ago we would not have accepted these things.

Last night on the news, police chiefs were talking about their concerns over the proposed cut in the budget for the police force.  When somebody was asked about crime rates he made a very clear point that crime is changing.  Crime is changing, but it seems to me that we are now tolerating practices that in the past we would have considered to be  criminal.

We don’t have to worry so much about somebody breaking into our homes anymore.  But, now it seems many of the supposedly respectable organisations and companies are using aggressive techniques to get their hands on your money.

Everybody is aware of the supermarkets who will  price a bargain pack at a higher price than the standard pack.  It has been pointed out that a common tactic used in retail is to increase the price of an item for a very short time, so when the price is lowered again it can be described as a reduction.

I recently realised that my mobile phone contract was nearly over and phoned up EE to ask  to change it over to a SIM only contract.  If I had left it another week I would have been too late and would have been paying the higher rate for another two years.  There was no warning from them to tell me my contract needed reviewing.

I was pushed for time and asked the call operator if he could put me onto a contract  that would give me roughly the same amount of minutes, texts and data as I had been on for the last year.  When the bill came through it looked surprisingly high.  I had been given about 10 times the number of minutes I use and vastly more data.  I tried to compare my bill to the price list for SIM only contracts on the EE website.  It turned out I had been placed on a ‘loyalty’ contract as I had been with the company so long.  That loyalty contract was more expensive than the contracts for new customers.

This sort of behaviour is now the norm, it has led me to mistrust most advertising.  We accept it and don’t challenge it, how can we?  So many companies try to cheat us out of our money!  The phone rings all the time with companies desperate for sales or trying to run some sort of scam on you.  I have received an alarming amount of scam emails, I have had my computer hacked and rarely answer my mobile when I see a ‘Private Number’.  I don’t really like feeling this cynical.

I recently did approach the police when somebody commissioned me to write a pamphlet that would raise awareness of Malaria.  He said he had sent a cheque that was an accidental over-payment as a deposit, and asked that I refund the difference immediately as the money was needed for food and clothing for victims of a Kashmiri flood.  It was highlighted to me by the NUJ, that this man was running a scam.  When I presented emails and the cheque to the police, they said that they could only investigate local scams, but asked me to phone the Fraud Helpline.

The Fraud Helpline told me that so many of these scams were being run, it was unlikely they would have time to investigate.  They gave me a large booklet about how to avoid losing money to a scam.  It seems the crime reduction policy as far as scams go is to educate the public on how to spot a scam.  The problem is so great now that it is too hard to tackle any other way.

We have had a few years now where people in positions of power have been found to be abusing the trust of the public.  We have seen the famous people convicted of child sexual exploitation and  there is now an enquiry about a VIP paedophile ring.  We have learnt about how GCHQ has been monitoring our communications, we have seen politicians being found guilty of fraudulent expenses claims, we have seen public figures get away with completely failing in their duties and a major newspaper close because of the complaints about phone hacking.  More and more companies are using tax evasion and avoidance techniques and many of our major banks have faced fines for the libor rate rigging and mis-selling of payment protection insurance.

One of the most important steps for this country to take would be to change what can only be called high level corruption practices.  I fear the consequences for  the UK if we simply stand by and allow those at the top to become more and more corrupt.  We can see the consequences of high levels of corruption by looking at many countries in the developing world, where the society is corrupt at every level.  Crime will always exist but it is very worrying when we see crime becoming the norm.