POT AND KETTLE
WHY is it that the conviction of Mr Lester Piggott for a massive and calculated tax fraud has aroused the sympathy of the nation, while the spectacle of formerly eminent financiers in the dock this week has excited nothing so much as pleasure, _ particularly from those who find the capi- talist system distasteful even when it is not being abused? These reactions are particu- larly paradoxical, since Piggott's £3.1 mil- lion fraud was designed to benefit only himself, while Mr Ernest Saunders stands accused of a theft which was designed to enrich not himself, but the shareholders of the Guinness company. Or looked at from the other side of the transactions, the financiers are accused of stealing assets owned by the wealthy of the land, but Piggott effectively stole from the same pot that is used to meet child benefit allo- wances and such like.
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