Regulators as corrupt as the regulated

If one endeavours to anatomise the lawlessness of the marketplace you could do a lot worse than look to Samuel Jonson's play Bartholomew Fair.

Through the comments of his Puritan characters, Jonson, shows how the fair violates religious law, and he uses Adam Overdo, a Justice of the Peace, to rail against the ways the merchants continually violate the criminal law as well. As Jonson presents it, Bartholomew Fair is the original home and headquarters of all the charlatans, cheaters, and thieves in London,

 As grave as Jonson’s doubts about an unregulated market may be, in the end he seems to suggest that a regulated market would be a good deal worse, if only because the regulators are no better than the regulated. 

If one looks around at UK politicians (after their recent exposure in the Daily Telegraph newspaper) it would appear they are all on the take, avarice and greed seem to be their predominant characteristic. 

The latest expose is that of a candidate for Mayor who has been spouting one mode of behaviour about paying one's taxes while  allegedly doing exactly the opposite. We have another 'regulator;  exposed as a womaniser, and in the opinion of many a bully and a thug who has been promoted to the House of Lords and is now seeking further regulatory high office.  It really is not very far in improvement terms from Jonson's medieval fair.

Jonson, not without self-criticism, recognized that as a professional dramatist and actor he was a participant in a marketplace himself. Bartholomew Fair is the headquarters of charlatans and thieves, but it is also the home of playwrights and actors.