‘A Future Fair to All’ is apparently New Labour’s slogan for the coming election.   Does that include, on behalf of the victims, holding to account the perpetrators of public scandals?   The last week alone has had quite a slew of them:

1  Will the managers of Stafford Hospital be brought to book (sacked?   and    prohibited from any senior role in social care in future?) for the deaths of 1,200 patients in their care whom the Francis Report found would not have died if they had received proper care?

2  Will News of the World, including its owner Rupert Murdoch and his editors including Andy Coulson, be held to account (fined?   and warned that any future repetition could lead to editors being sacked or even divestment of the paper from its current owners?) for illegal hacking into telephones on an industrial scale?

3  Will MI5 be subject to account (sacking of senior managers or director where found to be responsible?) for knowingly allowing torture to be applied to British citizens, not only Binyam Mohammed but several others?

4  Will those allegedly responsible for violence, mistreatment and racist abuse at the Bedfordshire detention centre at Yarl’s Wood be made liable (sacked?) if the charges are proved?

Vacuous slogans need to be brought to life with real action in cases of the worst abuses.

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