July 24, 2012
It is morally wrong to preach to people about what is morally wrong... Hold on, I had better rephrase that; but first let us have some context here.
Last month the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, accused the comedian Jimmy Carr of being "morally wrong" for using the Jersey linked K2 legal tax avoidance scheme. At the same time the Take That star, Gary Barlow, was being attacked from various quarters for similar "immorality". Now the Treasury Minister, David Gauke, has said it is "morally wrong" to pay tradesmen cash in hand in order to receive a discount, which would probably result in the worker not claiming those earning and by so doing avoid paying tax.
Jimmy Carr was so hounded, that he had to make a grovelling public apology about his "terrible error of judgement". When both media and politicians agree, you have not got a hope in hell. If I had been in Jimmy Carr's place I would have answered rather differently:
"What I did was perfectly legal. If the government does not like it, then I suggest it changes the law. I will not be preached to about what is morally right or wrong by politicians who squander tax payers money. Was it morally right, for instance, to give £500 billion of tax payers money to mismanaged banks? Seeing as I am not breaking the law, I consider it a privilege to be able to decide for myself what worthy cause I would like to give my tithes to."
If he had responded thus, perhaps the Treasury Minister would not have felt so bold as to launch another attack, this time on working class people who are already being squeezed dry by this government. It is bad enough when religious leaders try to tell us what is right and wrong without taking context into account, although at least their general principles are usually sound, for a politician to do so is bizarre.
When right and wrong is written in stone, we end up with 10 commandments, an Eightfold Path, Five Pillars and the like. As they say , only "fools rush in, where angels fear to tread."
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