How ironic that, at a time when right-wing politicians are suggesting that
values such as belief in liberty and democracy are solely "British", our society
appears to have lot sight of the principle of fairness. Sadly, the recent
banking scandals are not alone in providing the evidence for this judgement. The
news of the disgraceful attitude of the Premier League in its rejection of
"calls for clubs to pay the living wage to stadium staff despite their average
£50bn windfall" was made much worse when the League`s CEO,Scudamore, justified
the action by claiming paying a decent wage was "entirely for the politicians to
do, not us". Presumably clubs would still be using slave
labour if only those politicians hadn`t passed that silly law back in 1833? Yet
the clubs still have the audacity to claim they are delivering "economic benefit
to communities"!
Perhaps, such "obscene" greed is not
unexpected in the culture of Premier League football, but when the country`s
judges fail to grasp that complaining about salaries at least five or six times
the national average for work deemed "rewarding", the element of fairness seems
to have vanished completely. Should they not be comparing their pay to those
other oft-quoted "rewarding" jobs, teaching and nursing? Saying that becoming a
judge was now seen "as a less attractive option" than staying in private
practice simply refers to the money, not the responsibility, privilege or
position in society.
Having a government intent on transformation
of society might well be one answer, but the forthcoming election, unless I am
doing Mr Miliband a huge disservice, doesn`t appear to be one which will provide
it!
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