Blimey, he's taking it a bit isn't he?
If you tell him about it he will probably answer rudely. But obviously you won't ever use him again. Got a taxi once that topped up the fare outrageously in transit, the driver then having the damn cheek to say 'on the meter guv' as he named the diabollical sum. We had a loud stand-up row then and there.
Some years ago a former colonial officer I knew slightly, an old Nigeria hand, said in my presence that Nigerian corruption had started to spread to the British. I was quite irritated and asked sarcastically if he thought we British didn't have the nous to think up a bit of corruption for ourselves.
The fact is the influence went from us to them, not the other way round. People like the egregious Patrick Mercer were around in Chaucer's day and have been ever since. Stealing, swindling, bribery and petty fraud were obvious means for colonial grandees, overseas commodity traders and boxwallahs to speed up the acquisition of a fortune. They can hardly have been seen as more immoral than owning slaves. And they were used by many. Their families at home may have been blissfully unaware, but their local workers and business partners would have been in the picture, learning fast.
What hypocrites people are, and what idiots.
|
