On the face of it, the demise of the chain store BHS is easy to explain.

The business, we’re told, didn’t keep up to date; if you snooze, you lose. And anyway, the High Street stores will inevitably lose out more and more to the online shopper, blah, blah, blah. It’s the way of the world, isn’t it?

The fact that 11,000 people are losing their jobs, and it would seem, their pensions are being hit, is almost collateral damage. We certainly don’t hear stories about dramatic rescue plans such as the recent steel jobs, and where is the crisis talks which resulted in the fat cat bankers being bailed out by taxpayers money?

As I read the reports of what went wrong at BHS, it would seem to me that this is simply another example of one thing. Greed dominates this society.

Let me rewind a few weeks. Prime Minister David Cameron was under pressure a few weeks back when details emerged of his financial circumstances; Panama papers showed a history of his father investing in offshore tax investments. And the fact that Cameron had managed to avoid paying tax on £500,000 that he’d inherited from his parents was highlighted.

Dave initially didn’t come clean, squirmed a little and then admitted he’d made a mess of the issue and should have been more open earlier.

Did he do much wrong in his financial affairs, though? Probably not, to be fair. Nice work if you can get that sort of dosh handed down to you from wealthy parents, but be honest, how many of us would like to escape inheritance tax if it was legal to do so and we could hand on something to our next generation.

Move along, nothing to see here, as old-fashioned plod might have said.

But there were a couple of things that we should consider before we move on. Firstly, there is the wealth of people in power who are making decisions about the income of working class people.

What also interested me was the rush by some people to brand the criticism of Cameron as coming from “lefties” jealous of anyone with wealth.

Nonsense. There is nothing, in itself, wrong with wealth. It’s not money that is the root of all evil, it’s the love of money. And it would seem that our society is geared to reward such greed.

Recently, I read about the income of someone called Martin Sorrell.

Who?

Sorrell is founder of a company called WPP. He gets a salary of about £1.1million, £463,000 of pension contributions, a short-term bonus (£3.5m a year ago) and compensation for dividend payments from shares locked up in bonus schemes (£1.2m a year ago). And if he can’t survive on around £7million, we now learn that the 71-year-old is also getting a further £62.8 million bonus from a share option.

“How can anyone be worth £70million a year?” asked one headline. But Sorrell defended it.

The fact is, though, that although his annual income is exorbitant, he’s far from alone in getting more money than any one person could spend in nine lives. The cat analogy is appropriate; fat cats, geddit?

And so to the shenanigans around those involved in the ownership of BHS.

Sir Philip Green bought the company in the year 2000 for £200million, but in the 16 years since an estimated £400million has been extracted in the shape of dividends by the family to holdings in Monaco. The Financial Times estimates that over this period of time, £1billion was moved from BHS into the Green family coffers.

No wonder he could afford to buy £100million yacht. And then sell BHS for £1.

Who was the poor sap who bought the ageing, creaking business? Dominic Chappell, the former public schoolboy with a taste for racing cars, ski slopes and yachts, as one newspaper described him.

As BHS headed for oblivion, Dominic managed to extract £25million for himself.

So don’t feel too sorry for him. Instead reserve your sympathy for the 11,000 workers at BHS who don’t know where their next pay cheque is coming from as it’s revealed the company they were loyal to and worked for pay that was hardly going to buy a yacht now has debts of £1.3billion. In addition, a £571million deficit in the pension fund leaves 20,000 workers (past and present) facing a 10 per cent cut to the pension they had contributed to. How did that happen?

How did all this happen?

Fear not. The British Government is on the case.

Business Minister Anna Soubry says: “If there is any suggestion of impropriety, we will come after people.”

As we say in this part of the world: “Aye, right.”

When was the last time you saw a banker in the dock? Or someone wealthy who screwed the workers.

This Tory Government, and all parties for that matter, are more intent on going after the little guy. Still busy feathering their own expenses nests, they focus on cuts to people struggling on benefits for the disabled. And the rest.

What sort of society is it that criticises people who rely on benefits, and even suggests that people surviving on handouts from foodbanks are chancing their arm to get free food?

In the overall scheme of things, with all the millions, billions and sqillions swirling around in the world of Sorrell, Green and Chappell, the wealth of Cameron seems second or third division.

But it’s still in a different league to the rest of society. And that’s the point. How can Cameron and Osborne, with all their wealth really claim to be in touch with ordinary working people and the hardships they face. Britain is still one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but greed prospers. The rich get richer and the gap between top and bottom gets ever wider.

All in it together? Pah!