White-collar crime - Our record is still poor

The only way you can assess the value, integrity, or quality of a society is to compare it to another.

Comparisons can be made on many levels and across many societies, as the perfect one is as yet unrealised. One criteria that defines a society is how it deals with white-collar crime, a subject we have had ample opportunity to consider in recent years.

Yesterday, a former British Labour Party minister was sentenced to six months in jail for bogus expense claims amounting to just €15,600. Denis MacShane pleaded guilty to filing 19 fake receipts.