Sleaze and the Victorian businessman

Some seven men form an Association (If possible all Peers and Baronets) They start off with a public declaration To what extent they mean to pay their debts That's called their Capital ...
W.S. Gilbert Utopia Limited, 1893.

Unprecedented disenchantment with the present government owes something to the identification of Conservatives with business sleaze, both inside and outside Parliament. Recommendations from Lord Nolan's Committee on Standards in Public Life are intended to clean up the House of Commons and suspect governmental practices. MPs should reveal what they are paid by outside interests, restrictions should be placed on ex-ministers' paid employments, and greater transparency given to public appointments to quangos.

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