Is sloppiness our new national vice?

The Germans have a word for it. When they wish to criticise their Austrian cousins’ alleged tendency towards carelessness and inefficiency they call it schlamperei. The rough equivalent in English is ‘sloppiness’ – and a flurry of current cases suggests that it may be Britain’s new national vice, too.

How many times in recent years and months have we witnessed some public service official go before the cameras to express doubtless heartfelt – but utterly futile – apologies for failing to carry out their basic elementary duties? Failings that, all too often, have cost a human life.

The latest example of sloppiness in public service is the tragic case of Zara Aleena, the young woman murdered by a man named Jordan McSweeney as she walked home from a night out in June last year. McSweeney had an appalling record of violence: he had been released from prison nine days before Aleena’s death and had 28 previous convictions, including for assault.