Twenty Percent

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So, the price of morality is set at a lower limit of twenty percent of the take. Ten million quid: one fifth of the Tory war-chest, donated by one man: Frank Hester, he of the now infamous, frankly unforgivable racist and misogynist tirade. Apparently a bridge too far for Sunak to give up on: 'He's apologised [for his "rude" comments about Diane Abbott] so that should be an end to it' - I paraphrase - but really? Money trumps decency in this world: in my father's favourite phrase 'it was ever thus'. Mammon shrieks ever louder above the cries and moans of the depleted, dying populace; drowning out the creaking of the timbers of society as it sinks beneath the foetid waters of greed and mendacity; to lie rotting and forgotten below, as the gala of riches waltzes gaily on above, regardless. Thirty pieces of silver is all we are worth, apparently. Even Judas tried to give his bribe back: the Tories? Beyond all redemption, temporal or spiritual.

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