Business Friendly

When politics and profiteering mix, there is no such thing as a conflict of interest; there are only enhanced networking opportunities. Unfortunately, not everyone in the country has yet reached the exalted ethical heights of Chris Graybeing, the Minister for Profitable Incarceration and Heterosexual Hostelry; and so his appointee for chief inspector of probation has been forced to resign in order to pre-empt malicious gossip. Paul McDowell was given the role of independently overseeing the newly-privatised probation and re-offender manufacturing industry; then, by an astounding coincidence, the firm of which McDowell's wife was managing director somehow became the preferred bidder for six of the twenty-one available contracts. McDowell, who is a man of unimpeachable probity and never discusses business with his wife, let alone any business they might have in common, has resigned not because of any wrongdoing, but solely to avoid any misunderstanding of his position; while Graybeing, who is far too intelligent to understand how any misunderstandings could have arisen in the first place, has been left looking through his address book for a crook with a thicker skin.