John Jackson (Mishcon de Reya): Playing the game according to the rules is an ancient activity closely associated with the boundary between the socially acceptable and the unacceptable.
The best villas in Rome and its settlements had under-floor heating, running water and lavatories. And excessive indulgence in food and wine was permitted provided you did not throw up on the way to the conveniently situated vomitarium.
The functionaries in mediaeval palaces advised you on what was permissible if relief was necessary. Quite usually this involved squatting in the corner of the great hall and, having performed your ‘necessities', wiping yourself down with straw. When the smell became completely unbearable, the palace was vacated so that it could be scrubbed out and fresh straw laid. Come to think of it, rather like our general elections when the accumulation of excrement and used straw in the Palace of Westminster becomes too great to bear.
In the business world it is quite common to find efficient steady working folk who always start and stop work at exactly the prescribed times. Some of them take great care to be too unwell to come to work on exactly the number of days in the year that absence for health reasons is permitted without a doctor's certificate. They are also adept at using the rules governing expense allowances to maximum personal and financial advantage. ‘If it wasn't right the rules would not permit it.' They say. Socially acceptable? Hardly.
I hope we do not find that one of our most senior ministers is like that.
