# Worst acts of dishonesty and selfishness by politicians and corporations. Favorites? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 22, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acts-of-dishonesty-and-selfishness-by-politicians-and-corporations-favorites/183635 "2003-06-22T22:02:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acts-of-dishonesty-and-selfishness-by-politicians-and-corporations-favorites/183635/21 "2003-06-23T18:27:13Z")
In Louisiana, people don’t use the phrase “corrupt politician” because it’s redundant, at least until very recently. Since I’ve moved down here, I realize that there’s even a gruding pride in it. Someone told me this started with Huey Long and populist politics during the Depression when the state government became the purveyor of all largesse. Barter became the accepted form of government services. ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acts-of-dishonesty-and-selfishness-by-politicians-and-corporations-favorites/183635/22 "2003-06-23T19:55:52Z")
The gerrymandering scandal in Westminster Council in London is an appalling tale of desperate dealings by politicians obsessed with power. The Conservative administration led by Dame Shirley Porter used astonishing tactics to remove poor people, who were less likely to be Conservative voters, from the electorate in the borough of Westminster. People were evicted to move them out of the borough, making them homeless in the process, and others were rehoused in different wards (council constituencies) in appalling buildings full of asbestos that should have been condemned long before. See: > **[Westminster back in the dock](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1998/dec/10/uk.politicalnews)** > > Yesterday's damning report from the local government ombudsman is the latest in a long saga of scandals involving Westminster council, which date back to the late 1980s and early 1990s when Dame Shirley Porter was council leader. > **[Time to condemn Dame Shirley, Tories told, as Europe upholds gerrymandering...](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/may/31/uk.conservatives)** > > Dame Shirley Porter has finally failed to clear herself of the disgrace of having sold council homes at a discount in order to influence council elections. Another famous British case is that of T. Dan Smith, a Labour politician in Newcastle who sought to regenerate the area, but was eventually sentenced to jail in a corruption scandal involving the architect John Poulson who bribed city officials to get work. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/northeast/series2/tdansmith\_newcastlepolitics.shtml](http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/northeast/series2/tdansmith_newcastlepolitics.shtml) Also, there is Jonathan Aitken, a prominent Conservative politician, who was accused of corruption and pimping, and sold arms to Iran in contravention of export restrictions, but was eventually jailed for perjury: > **[Jonathan Aitken: a timeline](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/mar/04/uk)** > > 1971 Jonathan Aitken accused of offences under the Official Secrets Act for passing on classified information to the Sunday Telegraph about the Biafran war in Nigeria. He was acquitted of all charges having pleaded that it was his "duty in the... All this is small beer compared to the French complicity in the Rwandan genocide. I can’t find much info, since the French don’t like to mention it. But according to the International Herald Tribune: “French soldiers trained many of Rwandan soldiers and militiamen who later carried out the genocide, did not interfere when the genocide began, and subsequently were ordered to help the killers’ leaders to escape.” [http://www.iht.com/IHT/WP/98/wp012298.html](http://www.iht.com/IHT/WP/98/wp012298.html) ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acts-of-dishonesty-and-selfishness-by-politicians-and-corporations-favorites/183635/23 "2003-06-23T20:13:20Z")
I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned the most famous broken campaign promise, George Bush, Sr’s famous “Read my lips: no new taxes”. Even more serious, Woodrow Wilson promised not to enter World War I in the 1916 elections, only to join in the following year. See [here](http://www.expage.com/page/remington1) and [here](http://www.bear-left.com/original/2003/0330century.html). Were the allegations of ballot-box stuffing by Kennedy-supporters in 1960s ever substantiated? ---
**Author:** ![SnoopyFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@SnoopyFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnoopyFan)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acts-of-dishonesty-and-selfishness-by-politicians-and-corporations-favorites/183635/24 "2003-06-24T04:11:17Z")
Allegheny Power (gas company) here in WV is really good about dicking over their customers. Their asshole-ness knows no limits. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acts-of-dishonesty-and-selfishness-by-politicians-and-corporations-favorites/183635/25 "2003-06-24T05:16:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Governor Quinn \* > \*\*Chicago City Council \*\* I miss Mike Royko. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-acts-of-dishonesty-and-selfishness-by-politicians-and-corporations-favorites/183635.md?page=1)