ONE of the less attractive tendencies of current public and corporate life is the disinclination of those who squat at the top of the greasy pole to face up to the consequence of the buck stopping in their immediate vicinity.

Take the bankers who clung on precariously in the hope that someone would chuck even more money at them than they already had to persuade them to shuffle off. MPs caught overclaiming on expenses scuttle around pleading ‘oversight’ – a plea that the Inland Revenue is rarely sympathetic towards when ordinary electors offer it as an explanation.

They then pay tens of thousands of ‘erroneous’ expenses back, in the hope that would be the end of it. And for many of them it was. Three of the four that that the DPP has deemed worthy of prosecuting under the Theft Act have had the temerity to suggest that they might attempt to hide behind the defence of ‘parliamentary privilege’ – a suggestion that has thankfully been roundly and soundly condemned by the world at large.

Now we have a millionaire footballer refusing to surrender the captaincy of his country, after being exposed as an adulterer in a scandal that impacted on a team mate and (presumably former) friend. Not too long ago, the then prevalent sporting ethos would have resulted in an instant and honourable resignation.

But now either the money or some deluded vision of untouchability seems to induce these idols with feet of clay to decline to look down.

John Terry is undeniably a fine footballer and neither his infidelity to his wife nor his disloyalty to his friend should be relevant to his ability to play football or indeed to captain his league side, none of the team members of which are adversely affected by his trouser removing activities. However, as a result of those activities adversely affecting a team mate in the national side, one does feel that a decent man would have offered his resignation as soon as the fat lady sang. And I am not referring there to the beneficiary (or otherwise) of his roving eye. Being a bear of comparatively little brain in a world where those in much higher places invariably cling on against the odds, it is sadly unsurprising that he had to be pushed.