I'm continually amazed by the outrage and surprise expressed by commentators when yet another scandal involving highly placed and influential individuals emerges. We have witnessed a parade of the greedy, the venal, the immoral and the abusive, from churchmen to doctors, members of parliament and policemen and, common to all, has been the fact that individuals tried to bring these issues out into the open only to be suppressed by fair means and foul.
Now we have another parade of fat cats, this time senior members of FIFA, who seem to be accused (accused note, not guilty) of corruption on an industrial scale. Yet rumours of this behaviour have been common currency for years and nothing has been done until now. Most informatively, the man who has been at the top throughout the period under review, Sepp Blatter, is standing for re-election as FIFA's president and may well be re-elected tomorrow.
Democracy is all very well but it is clearly completely eviscerated if it does not deliver transparency and accountability, two things that are notably absent behind most of the scandals that have entertained us recently.