The sound of political and financial chickens flying home is surely loud enough for even the most optimistic of our Politicians to realise that shouting out names from behind the despatch box is not going to stop the smell of the corruption and decay from reaching our noses. Any actions will need to be swift and thorough if these foolish people are going to stand any hope of appearing to be credible in the eyes of: Businesses who have no tax avoidance desires or opportunities, yet have a desire to be treated on an equal basis; Pensioners who have trusted institutions such as HSBC with their much more modest savings than can be amassed by people such as Lord Fink; Taxpayers who have assumed that it is the role of Governments to ensure that all of us pay our way for public services; Electors who want to use their democratic currency to obtain a good return for themselves and their communities. It is clear that all of the parties have been affected by this problem and claiming one side or another is more guilty of receiving donations from tax avoiders or evaders will simply not help. It is possible for the Government to hide behind the slow response from HMRC, although all sorts of skeletons lie in that cupboard which will come to light as the disparity between the investigative powers and policies of HMRC and DWP is exposed, the image above shows why that is so important. The concept of public accountability of politically appointed Lords and Ladies is fast reaching crisis point with people such as Stephen Green refusing to even speak about his time in charge of HSBC and its Swiss subsidiary, and Lord Fink believing that his reputation will be improved if he threatens to take the leader of the other party to court. Stanley Fink was a Hedge Fund manager, he is not someone who is financially naive. These two men and many others whose company they enjoy act as legislators when it suits them, and then claim to be private citizens when it suits them, that is simply not credible. If Party Politicians were generally held in high esteem and if we had confidence in the system within which they operate, the damage of this week would possibly be of little significance, but 7 years after the banking crisis with successive Political leaders having been critical of the bankers wot done it, this really does feel like a much deeper cut than many of its 999 predecessors.