Sarah Ferguson - A Very British Scandal

This weekend the Sarah Ferguson money for introductions scandal broke in the News of the World, a publication usually more interested in sex lives of footballers's wives and girlfriends than corruption amongst Britain's elites,. Since then, however, there has been precious little coverage in the country's more serious publications, even the Guardian saw fit to publish just one article entitled "Why I feel sorry for Sarah Ferguson" and seemed to suggest that she was more a victim of a royal plot than a money grubbing con woman out to make herself rich through supposedly setting up contacts with the rich and powerful via her ex-husband, the son of Queen Elizabeth II. Just weeks ago hundreds of thousands of Greek gathered outside the nation's parliament and tried to storm the place, in part because they feel their political elites were guilty of this kind of behaviour.

So what do the British do? Nothing, instead the story is quietly buried, at least as far as the "respectable" press is concerned and a woman filmed taking what constitutes a bribe is allowed to flee the country in style while Buckingham Palace publishes an apology on her behalf stating that she showed "a serious lack of judgement".

Serious lack of judgement is knocking back too much chardonnay at a party and dancing the Lambada on top of a table. Serious lack of judgement is telling your boss what you really think of them at the office Christmas party. I do not think the phrase was meant to cover demanding half a million pounds ($746,000) in bribes to ensure access to Britain's trade envoy. I'm sure that there are plenty of other phrases that more accurately describe what happened, pithy ones such as "greasing palms", "pulling strings" or perhaps the more formal "influence peddling".