The vulgar excesses of the super-rich

It's not just the left that worries about reckless behaviour by the corporate elite. We are living in an era of "crony capitalism", argued the Tory MP Jesse Norman in a pamphlet before Christmas, warning that the huge gap between the very rich and everyone else threatens to undermine the economy and cause social unrest. David Cameron sees the danger too. His first speech of the New Year stressed the need for an urgent crackdown on huge corporate salaries: "While a few at the top get rewards that seem to have nothing to do with the risks they take or the effort they put in, many others are stuck on benefits, without hope or responsibility."

Cameron's right. The gap between the have-yachts and the have-nots is growing faster in Britain than in any developed country. A survey by the Samaritans found that 58% of adults fear they won't have enough money to be comfortable on this year. Yet, as Rachel Sylvester points out in The Times, at One Hyde Park, the £1.4bn Knightsbridge apartment block, even the parking spaces are being snapped up for £250,000. And while before Christmas people in Hackney queued to buy presents at the Pound Shop, down the road at Canary Wharf, Tiffany & Co was doing a booming trade in diamonds. This has nothing to do with "the politics of envy", says Sylvester.

What we are seeing is "the creation of an overclass that behaves as if it has no responsibility". The super-rich, she argues, play the system in a way the rest of us can't. Around £1bn in stamp duty on house sales is lost each year, with one in three buyers of houses sold for more than £1m avoiding the 5% tax by putting their properties into offshore companies. "People who would never dream of breaking into someone else's home are quite happy effectively to rob the taxpayer."

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Nor do we see much evidence of tact in the ranks of the new rich. Roman Abramovich bought up the best seats for the ballet school Nutcracker in which his daughters were performing, leaving other parents to strain their necks to see. "That's just rude," says Sylvester. The bankers who drill out basements in Notting Hill, threatening their neighbours' foundations, are as antisocial as hooded youths who annoy old ladies. "And is there a huge difference between the billionaire sheikh who has carved his name into an island in the Gulf so he can see it from the sky and the graffiti artist who sprays his signature on to the council estate wall to assert his claim to the territory?"

Mrs Thatcher would have been as disapproving as Sylvester of the vulgar excesses of the very rich. New evidence of her thriftiness has come to light with the release of papers under the 30-year rule. In one note, the then prime minister criticised civil servants for planning to spend £2,000 refurbishing the Downing Street flat, arguing that she and Denis only used one bedroom. She also insisted on paying for the bed linen herself, and for a £19 ironing board. I don't think she'd have got on with Roman Abramovich.

Tabloid money how "people power" put an end to bank bonuses

In 2010, the motorways in Britain were closed either partially or fully no fewer than on 18,000 occasions, says Jeremy Clarkson in The Sun. On average, each closure lasted for a staggering six hours. "Well, now Roads Minister Mike Penning has announced a new £2.7m programme which will allow police investigations to take a 3D laser scan of a crash site. This will enable them to work out what went wrong while back at the station rather than on site.

Sounds like a good idea. Especially as £2.7m is nothing compared to the £1bn that road closures cost in lost business. However, before you start jumping for joy, I should explain that the 3D laser will only cut the time a road is closed from six hours to five hours and 20 minutes. That's pathetic." Accidents happen, and always will. It's time we accepted it.

In a year of "people power" successes, one that's passed with little notice is a Dutch campaign against bank bonuses, says Mark Austin in the Sunday Mirror. Customers of the bailed-out Amsterdam-based ING "mobilised online to threaten mass withdrawals from bank accounts if bonuses for bosses went ahead. The boycott idea worked. The bosses waived their right to bonuses and legislation is now being planned to prevent such payments at Dutch banks that got state aid. How long before a similar campaign is launched here?"

"An astonishing 40,000 British women have been conned into breast implants made from dodgy French silicone," says Trevor Kavanagh in The Sun. "More shocking, the cash-strapped NHS must now fork out £150m to remove them in case they explode. But the most astonishing fact is that tens of thousands of apparently sensible women would risk their health and pay £4,250 for needless cosmetic surgery which only ends up making them look slightly deformed."