Fiends in high places

A rolling list of rogues in the corridors of power, with thanks to Private Eye

I'm almost speechless with rage. This happens pretty much every fortnight, the predictable result of reading Private Eye. It was Chris Philp that did tipped me over this time, but it could have been any of the wheedling swine who live high on the hog by setting up some "business" or other and then, when time comes to pay, either walk away or crash the thing, leaving creditors -- typically including the taxpayer -- out of pocket.

This has been going on since one caveman said to another, "Let me have your share of this gazelle and I'll give you the next mammoth I catch", but in earlier times perhaps the expectation of extreme violence from those left disappointed would have discouraged such activities. Now they are kept safe by the very laws that should be used against them. And a man such as Philp is swinging from the highest branches of Liz Truss's filthy tree of incompetence and immorality.

Private Eye does a superb job of at least bringing these people's backgrounds into the light -- but then the next issue arrives and another recidivistic cur makes you so furious that you forget all about Philp. So I resolved to make a list for posterity of those whose "business" dealings seem so incompetent, negligent or crooked that in any other arena one feels they would have been deprived of their liberty. I'm also including politicians with questionable taste in donors. Feel free to send us your suggestions.

Chris Philp, chief secretary to the Treasury: firms including Blueheath Holdings and Clearstone closed owing millions. Told Times Radio that misgivings about the mini budget were "the politics of envy"

Brandon Lewis, justice secretary (yes, really): keeps taking money from unlikeable Russians

Ben Houchen, Tees Valley mayor: hard to know where to start, but let's go with his breathtakingly disingenuous claim that the National Audit Office had given the Teesworks project, meant to be another Docklands but somehow now 90% in the hands of two local families, a "full clean bill of health"