I'm not talking about armed robberies, extreme corruption, paedophilia, looting etc, but those everyday events when honesty may not be the right solution.

When bringing up my children, I had a terrible problem when trying to equip them for later life. I wanted them to be honest and straight forward, in a world that isn't. I helped them with CVs, and that was hard, and to be honest, I had to tell them that on a few occasions it was better to lie.

They've all done reasonably well in life, the ones who took my advice have done even better, but on an occasional examination of my conscience, in the cold light of day, I worry.

Sorry but what?

All your kids are doing reasonably well. So where's the problem? A few white lies here and there? Haven't we been doing that since they were born? The Tooth Fairy. Father Christmas. Eat your sprouts, they're full of iorn or whatever veg it happened to be? A tiny white lie on a job application like "my French is good" instead of saying "my French is poor". Depends how much time I have between the interview and the job to make my French go from poor to good.

You'd have more on your conscience if they were crack smoking, stealing, robbing rapists. Think yourself lucky. Yours are already grown up and doing well.

Pam from the Railway Inn, now this ?

Life will take them (like it did you) where it takes them.

From your previous posts you appear to be over a hundred years old, All I can usefully add is, take it steady.

Honesty only pays when everyone else is scrupulously honest.

Which they never are!

Exactly.

So does this give us all a valid excuse for having a nice little earner or a teeny weeny bit fiddle on the side here and there ?

I'm only asking like

I just work on the basis that if you steal less than an MP, you aren't a thief.

Dishonesty is best avoided but is OK as long as nobody loses out.

forget it ---- totally messed up quotes

we know about UK mp's. what about Spanish or Italian mp's or even Europa mp's ?
how much do they "fiddle" as a % of salary ?
or is there another comparison ?

and will the revenue accept that my "crime" is less than that of my mp and let me off ??
no didnt think so !

Well if we're talking Italy - we have the best of the best of money grabbing bastards here. We even have an MP who changes the law to suit his money grabbing activities.

It doesn't surprise me as much as it used to do when so called "big" trade professionals ask me how much I want to pay on a fiscal and legal invoice, and how much I want to pay cash for a discount.

Even the kids' dentist asks me today if I want an invoice - so did the estate agent all of 10 years ago and so did the solicitor.... and the plumber etc.

Maybe not so serious if those who are stolen from can well afford to lose it.
I say that partly because of a fascinating prog I just watched on itv1 an hour ago entitled Fraud.
The top man is a Nigerian surprise,surprise.
His chief operators are mostly from tyneside but based on the costa sol,surprise again,
The cops estimate his gang have pulled in at least 20 million quid in the last year or two, much of it from cold calling old folks and selling them worthless shares to do them out of their savings for old age.
Yet amazingly enough, the victims also incl. a judge,a solicitor and several cops.
Part 2 of the same operation to nail the perpetrators is on same time next week.

the uk has stopped cheque guarantee cards, have been talking heavily about stopping cheques.
so no matter where you live, (real) money makes the world go round, and granny had a valid reason for keeping it under the bed after all