It’s a natural human tendency to want things to stay the same. In fact, the more powerful you are, the greater your interest to keep things unchanged.

Showing off in Latin

In Latin, you might say Minimum cupit mutare potentissimus.

For example, here in the UK there’s a cross-party government thing called the Public Accounts Committee. It was created in 1861 to oversee government expenditure to ensure they stay honest and true.

The current chair of the Public Accounts Committee is a Member of Parliament called Margaret Hodge. She’s the chair. And she rocks. She’s a rocking ch… no, forget it.

Anyway, what this accounts committee has done historically is, 1) listen quietly to things that have gone wrong, 2) ask the offenders please to not be caught next time, and 3) forget anything happened in case it embarrasses one of our influential friends who might promote us.

Change Arrives

That was before the Right Honourable Margaret Hodge MP breezed in, slammed the door, opened the windows, sat in the big chair and started shouting.

Margaret - a name to reckon with in UK government - has taken the way things used to be done and flushed it down the trap. She calls a spade a frickin’ spade. Loudly. To its face. In public.

During a committee meeting investigating tax arrangements of US companies, she said: “[How will the Prime Minister] prevent Starbucks from sticking two fingers up to the British people?”.

She said these arrangements are “…devious, calculated and, in my view, unethical”.

Another gem, more recent, to a boss of the Inland Revenue who doesn’t really want to cause trouble by investigating large corporate tax avoiders: “Honestly, I want to put a BOMB under you guys!”.

Yep, that’s what most of us feel about HM Revenue and Customs.

The risk of being complacent is that events simply overtake you - like the powerful people hauled up in front of Margaret’s committee.

In contrast, Margaret shows us impatience. It’s a real virtue.

Photo courtesy of denshift.com.